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“This blog is like a fusion of the Baroque ‘salon’ with its well-tuned harpsichord around which polite society gathered for entertainment and edification and, on the other hand, a Wild West “saloon” with its out-of-tune piano and swinging doors, where everyone has a gun and something to say. Nevertheless, we try to point our discussions back to what it is to be Catholic in this increasingly difficult age, to love God, and how to get to heaven.” – Fr. Z
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- on ROME 24/4– Day 35 (-6): adventures in symmetry: “From a reader: “What are in the frames between the vestments?” Those are the priest’s vesting prayers. I’ll show more…”
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- on “you must not remember your forefathers…” Wherein Fr. Z rants.: “My children at one of the solid Chesterton Academies have been taught science and theology by an amazing young Catholic…”
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I get to go to the Traditional Mass every day, and it’s only a 15 minute drive. How fortunate I am!
I Went to My First Latin Mass(Ordinary Form) at The Ateneo de Manila University,Philippines. The Celebrant is A Jesuit Priest(They Own It,although The University is Liberal in Nature,Like Georgetown and Santa Clara)
There was An Angelus in Latin.
There were “Typos” in The Missalette,but We Were Able to Make It Solemn!(Plus,Public Prayers Before and After Mass)
DEO GRATIAS!
Comment on Sunday’s gospel.
Jesus had called Peter ‘Satan’. When the evangelist was gathering his material for his gospel, Peter, in his humility, made this admission, whereas last week Jesus had called him a rock and given him the keys.
Would I have admitted to this humiliation?
Our recently uprooted Latin Mass community is surviving it’s move, and while we have lost a few people, we have also gained some. We are on our feet, moving forward. God is good~
http://www.MontereyLatinMass.org
(EF Dominican, UK) Gospel of the Deaf and Dumb man. The point made that the character and event was real but he is a figure of the whole human race. A “dumb” man might still be able to speak a little but very imperfectly: he stood for those who had not yet received the fullness of faith (through his ears) which would allow him to speak the gospel clearly (through his mouth). All those outside the Church have some speech but not its fullness and their message is always imperfect therefore. Quoting the Venerable Bede, Christ “took him aside” from the crowd: away from the noise and passions of the world.
Old rite of baptism includes an imitation of Christ’s actions: spittal on the tongue and fingers in the ears and the word Ephpheta, “Be thou opened.”
Involvement of the whole Trinity in this act: Christ, to His Father, the action of the Holy Ghost.
Why did Christ sigh (groan) as he looked up to Heaven? Reflection on what evil the man with his new gifts might encounter? Pity for his state? How satan had tried to thwart His creation by deafness to the Word and inability to speak it? Points to reflect upon.
Attended my first Bergmesse (Mass held in the mountains) yesterday, high in the Alps overlooking our valley. We wandered up the steep path to a lovely high altitude verdant meadow (the Musauer Alm), surrounded by the yet higher peaks and deep rich forests. Cows grazed nearby, bells on leather straps about their ‘necks’ providing a faint lilting sound in the whispering Summer winds. Hundreds of local folk and guest…some bedecked in lederhosen, others in mountain wandering gear… from many surrounding villages made the trek up to this site to spend this Sunday…a gorgeous cloudless warm breezy day. Father (Pfarrer) Bader set up a small table in front of a beautiful old Wegkreuz…a large wooden handcarved Crucifix permanently affixed into the earth on a hill overlooking a natural grassy amphitheater. At 1100, all gathered fore the Cross and altar…the Mass began. The forest was our flying buttress and the higher peaks our spires. For our music, we all sang the Deutschemesse by Franz Schubert; the splendid village band (Musikkapelle) from Musau providing the orchestral guidance. Herr Pfarrer lead the Mass under these crisp neon blue Heavens. The sounds of his voice and the music we all made wafted midst these rolling hills. With the Ite Missa Est, we all slowly made our way to the nearby Musauerhutte….the venerable Inn that has been serving wanderers and hikers in the mountains for many years. The remainder of the day was spent there, enjoying the folk melodies played by the Musikkapelle from Musau and our village, Pinswang, feasting on fresh bratwurst, potato salad, rich home-baked cakes, beer and schnapps, and moving from table to table to chat with friends, old and new. Yet, the true highlight of the day was it’s beginning..when, exhausted from our long trek up the mountain, we sat together on that rolling green mountain meadow, listening to the liturgy or Our Lord in a place just a tiny bit closer to Heaven itself.
Father had an interesting set of reflections on how St. Peter let his own projections of what Christ should do and be get the better of him when he opposed going to Jerusalem. Needless to say, this projecting of our own image of Christ and his Church onto them, instead of deferring to holy Scripture and sacred Tradition to see what they truely are, continues to plague us to this day. (OK, he actually mentioned the ‘community of the faithful’ rather than sacred Tradition, but it was very clear he didn’t have the magisterium of nuns in mind.)
Very true words indeed.
Only 4 more weeks untill our wedding!
More thoughts about Peter:
But he was still the same, frail, human Peter. He still went on to deny Jesus three times. Some people have wondered why such a frail, flawed person should be given such a key role. It’s simply because Peter was so ordinary and so human. There is a lovely passage from a play by Dorothy L Sayers, “Zeal of thy House”, which sums it all up so well:
“God founded the church, not upon John,
The loved disciple that lay so close to his heart,
And knew his mind – not upon John, but Peter:
Peter the liar, Peter the coward, Peter
The rock, the common man; John was all gold,
And gold is rare; the work might wait while God
Ransacked the corners of the earth to find
Another John, but Peter is the stone,
Token of the world re-made – so stands the church
Stone upon stone, and Christ the corner-stone
Carved of the same stuff, common flesh and blood,
With you and me and Peter.”
Peter is not just the leader of the apostles, or even just a great saint. He is the archetypal Christian, willing but weak.
God chooses ordinary people, with all their weaknesses and failings and uses them in his service. All he is looking for is that faith and trust which Peter had. He can then take what little we have and turn it into something he can use.
If the foundations are true and sound the building will stand firm. That’s why the Faith of the Church is so important. God needs that faith in us in order to build.
I literally just moved to a new province and I’m up to my elbows in boxes needing unpacking. The good news is my kitchen is unpacked enough that I can actually cook food now. I was getting tired of eating cereal. Still no cable or Internet yet, but that just means nothing to distract myself from unpacking.
On Saturday I made it to confession again and now I’m back with my regular confessor. Saturday was so hot and the a/c (I’m assuming the church has a/c) wasn’t on so the confessional was super hot. I could see Fr fanning himself through the screen, and I must say how thankful I am that there are confessors willing to roast in the confessional in the summer so we don’t have to later on.
Yesterday I was back at the TLM I was driving 2 hours one way last year to attend. It was nice to only have to drive 10 kms. Father did make some good points on destraction and calumnity and how to avoid and dodge getting stuck in doing both. Unfortunately it’s too early in the morning for me to recall what exactly he said.
And now I’m going to daily Mass this morning. I’m so happy I have such options now.
The pastor connected this Sunday’s Gospel with the one from last week, so St. Peter who was first described as a foundational rock, this week was a skandalon – a rock that makes one stumble specifically because St. Peter, in this episode, wanted to avoid saying something unpopular. The response to the Lord’s question “Who do they say I am?” brought up the martyrdom of St. John the Baptist – including explicitly that St. John was martyred for his support of the sanctity of marriage! The importance of saying things that people may not want to hear was well-emphasized.
Additionally, people seemed to be dressed more appropriately for Mass than had been true the past few weeks.
Hurricane passed and we’re all fine over here.
So far, we have gotten “all clear” post-Irene reports from family and friends up and down the Atlantic coast.
Homily: Father alluded to storms and trials, noting God as being the only sure refuge. Then spoke about Peter and learning that we must embrace God’s salvation in its fullness, not denying those portions we’d rather not see.
This year we have 83 friars at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington DC. 50 of these friars are in formation. Our newly professed friars have just arrived: http://bit.ly/ouMEAc Please say a prayer for them!
I got back in the early hours from the LMS walking pilgramage to Walsingham from Ely, managed to walk 52 out of the 55 miles acompanied by 30 or so other Traditional Catholics, our Chaplin for the Pilgramage said 3 beautiful Sung Masses and gave inspiring sermons and we walked the Holy Mile from the current Catholic Shrine to the sight of the original.
In addition we sang the Rosary in Latin en route and visited a manor house where even during the dark days of the the elizabethan persecution the sanctuary lamp has never gone out and Father said Mass in the Chapel, at the same house we were privaliged to experience what it must of been like hiding in a priest hole.
The best part however was being able to venerate a relic of the True Cross on Saturday evening.
Since I couldn’t make my normal Sunday Extraordinary Form Mass I attended the anticipatory Mass at my local parish. In addition to the celebrant we had a missionary priest from India deliver the homily and appeal for his outstanding missionary work in India and Tanzania. He reflected on all of us denying ourselves, taking up our crosses and earnestly praying for vocations particularly to the priesthood. He proudly exclaimed that his mother prayed for his vocation since she had been married. All is well and returning to normal as formerly Hurricane Irene exits Gotham City.
Family and friends are safe after the hurricane. All came through un-scathed. Thank you, Lord God.
APX, Great thought, confessors willing to roast in the confessional so we may not have to later. Love it!
(Done, Benedict at 7:32 am, and thanks for linking those beautiful pictures that bring much hope to the heart.)
More good news from my neighboring parish, OF, Sunday 5:00 pm:
Liturgy: Processional hymn was Take Up Your Cross, on the organ. Again, no sign of the (formerly?) usual hootenanny band! Cantor is now in the choir loft with the organ, and a kneeler has been placed beneath the statue of Our Lady, in front of which the band used to set itself up and where the cantor was stationed two weeks ago. The pastor has also introduced significant pauses after each reading to allow a little time for reflection. (What a happy contrast to my geographic parish, where the newly arrived pastor moved the organ, choir, and piano down from the choir loft to the front, right beside the sanctuary, and the piano bangs and clangs loudly and the warbling chanteuse belts out very loudly but strangely seductively, like a saloon-and-cabaret combo, GIA/OCP banalities.)
Homily: Tom wants to take it with him when he dies and so is permitted one, and only one, carry-on bag. He shows up at the pearly gates with his bag loaded with gold bricks. Unzipping the bag, St. Peter asks, “Tom, you brought paving stones to Heaven?” We are all going to die, leaving this earth as stripped down as when we entered it, just in bigger bodies. Last week when Irene was threatening, the pastor secured two things: the Blessed Sacrament and his laptop. Amazingly useful devices, laptops, but there will be no laptops in Heaven. No iPods/Phones/Pads, BlackBerries, e-mail, texts, facebook, twitter, cable, satellite, HDTV. “Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it.” Calling Peter “Satan”: was it a hyperbolic device to get Peter’s attention, another way of saying, “Hey, stupid, listen to Me”? Maybe we wish Jesus had treated Peter with less impatience, less harshness. “Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it.” Jesus in Jerusalem; Peter in Rome. “Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” St. Peter gets it now. The saints surround us (indicating icons all around the nave); we can’t see them but they can see us; they know about our lives. “Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it.”
In the pews: paperback copies of the Catechism for the taking ($5 donation requested, or more, or less); 501 already taken; new order of 504 went in. Eight-year-old boy in front of me and thirty-something man down the pew from me, both reading it before Mass.
In the bulletin, under Order of Worship, immediately below Liturgy of the Eucharist: “Guidelines for the Reception of Holy Communion,” two paragraphs.
Brick by brick by brick by brick.
Noting Paul’s avowal that he was the least of the Apostles (Epistle – 1 Cor. 15-1-10) in our TLM Mass, Father noted that we are nothing of ourselves. We , poor sinful creatures that we are, have received the GIFT of Faith from our Heavenly Father, not by our own merit. We should never, for a minute, consider throwing that gift away. How many of us will persevere in the Faith to our last breath? It isn’t a given.
The rooster didn’t get me whilst I was in the garden picking vegetables!
Fr. Benedict, thanks for sharing about the friars and the shiny-faced, new friars. It sure made my day, gives me hope for the future, and warms my heart. I will pray for you all.
My wife has just given birth to our first child, a boy. We have been married for 6 years and w ere beginning to think it would never happen. My wife fell pregnant within a few weeks of the beatification mass of John Henry Newman, at which I prayed pretty hard. Not making any claims, just sayin’. Anyway, the boy is named for Blessed JHN. Deo gratis.
More good news, I learned today that the place I’m internIng at is only 2.5 kms from church, so I may be able to attend daily Mass more often depending on my schedule.
Even better good news, I didn’t blow myself up or start a fire at the gas station just now when I forgot to shut off my car. One of the downside to having a muffler that works, I guess.
The family celebrated my mother’s birthday yesterday after Mass! Was a great afternoon spent with family.
Classes began today after a relaxing summer. I kicked it off yesterday by going to St John Cantius’s High Mass. Very beautiful.
The hurricane is gone, it’s a gorgeous day, and it was just cool enough to wear a hoodie this morning. God is good!
“asperges” said it all. In fact, if he didn’t mention where he was (UK), I would have swore we heard the same sermon yesterday! Thanks be to God for our beautiful high Mass with the FSSP here in CA.
Father also asked folks dressed in shorts and those showing cleavage to refrain from approaching for Holy Communion. It needed to be said.
My new wife and I are getting our home in order, which is a nice feeling – boxes and stuff everywhere gets old quickly, as others have noted!
Went to a parish at which we’d never assisted at Mass yesterday; Father talked about the need to embrace suffering in its different forms and offer it up to Our Lord, and that we must do this to get to Heaven. He connected it to last week’s OF gospel, saying that Our Lord called Peter to be the First Pope and now calls us to embrace suffering in order to attain Heaven. It was very refreshing to hear some “straight talk” about picking up our Cross, and about the only thing that matters is Heaven. Deo gratias!
On top of that, the Church has an altar rail, and even though there were many faithful receiving, only priests distributed Holy Communion, one at the rail and one to people standing; the standing priest was accompanied by an altar boy with a paten, and he used it for people who received both in the hand and on the tongue. I was very glad to see this arrangement, and very thankful to be able to receive Our Lord kneeling (and of course on the tongue!) at an OF Mass.
I got hired last week to teach at summit academy in Idaho
Father talked this weekend about how we are all a little like Peter, we’re up, we’re down, we’re sure, we’re unsure, but it’s all okay.
My area was on the ‘edge’ of the hurricane, so all we had was a lot a rain and some wind. It’s now quiet and calm, with just enough coolness to wear my trusty gray hoodie and jeans outside-thank God!
Heard a good sermon at our TLM yesterday. The priest started out with a story about Father Mateo (the ‘Enthronement Priest’) and a man on his deathbed who was very obstinate about repenting of his sins. Father was gently but firmly consistent, and the man was converted along with his family. The upshot of it was that the elderly lady who was the family cook revealed later on that she constantly prayed and sacrificed for her employer’s conversion.
The priest also mentioned about the Gospel of the day, the cure of the deaf and mute man-but don’t ask me what he said. I’ll have to go and listen to it later on.
I move into the seminary in 3 days – yikes! Prayers, please! I’m a little nervous…
The parish I cantor at had celebrated their patronal feast of St. Augustine on Sunday, so the pastor spoke of the lives of Monica and Augustine. The major thing that stuck out to me was that without Monica’s prayers, the Church would never have had Augustine. It’s something we all know about Monica, but I don’t think we ever think about it at length – without Monica’s years and years of prayers, the Church would never have had Augustine. It’s hard to imagine, and thank God for Monica!
Saturday evening, the Church of St. Anthony had the FIRST TLM wedding celebrated in the Diocese of Des Moines since the Council. The celebrant was Monsignor Frank Chiodo and the bride and groom are now happily married.
Praise God.
Our son made it through his first week as a college student. He had to switch his Latin class, because he discovered that the one he was originally in was far too easy. Glad the kid likes to be challenged.
Great homily (EF) about the deaf and dumb man– his deafness and dumbness being not so much physical as spiritual. Jesus opened his ears to hear the Holy Ghost and his mouth to proclaim the truth.
For the last couple years our pastor has been learning American Sign Language and working with our local deaf community. He said that many of them (like many hearing Catholics!) have not been well catechized. He has kind of made it his mission to ‘open their ears’ to the Gospel. He has even purchased some communication devices for the parish. One of these devices can be brought into the confessional to ‘hear’ a deaf person’s confession. It’s a blessing that people from the deaf community can find a home at our parish.
Our youngest will return, God willing, from a war zone in 5 weeks. It is also that one’s birthday today. God bless and protect our troops.
My pastor had said several months ago that he would learn the Extraordinary Form and offer it every Saturday evening, but recently told me that he won’t have time to learn the EF after all. This was very disappointing news! Could you and your readers please pray for my pastor? He is a wonderful priest.
Good news: I got offered a job that I had hoped and prayed to have but didn’t think I had a chance of getting. Deo gratias!
Safe trip to my retreat, I didn’t get too sick, they have wifi in the guest house now, I got great pictures of the stained glass and tabernacle and its baldecchino, and I may have found a spiritual director who can help me with my lectio problem. And I dragged my credit card through the student bookstore. Didn’t do the gift shop yet! Got a Graduale Simplex all my own now. I am in chant nerd heaven.
I passed a very important exam from maths today, that was judging me to or not to go in a higher class. Just one year more to the seminary. :)
The good news is that I had been led to believe that my house would be washed away and all my belongings would be floating in the sea by now. None of that happened on account of God’s mercy; He apparently took action against the southern portion of the hurricane and weakened it as it moved north, rendering it far less powerful than feared.
The bad news is that at the standing-room-only 5 PM Mass I attended on Saturday evening, the pastor decided that there was no time for even a brief homily, although there was time for the sign of peace and a blessing and a round of applause for a couple celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary, so I have nothing to report about the homily. But at least I was able to get to a valid Mass on the eve of a day of obligation.
Enjoying seeing everyone’s excellent news. Especially in wonderment at Andreas’ and Benedict’s updates, wow!!
Tonight, I will start preparing the paperwork to file a complaint against my employer for serious illegal actions that have caused emotional and psychological harm. I had hoped to wait until tomorrow as I am tired but I can tell that the Holy Spirit will not let me rest until I initiate the process. Please pray for me.
My good friend was waiting to hear back about a biopsy, she’s 26, and the test came back benign. Thanks be to God.
from the sermon this week: “We do what we believe.” a nice rendering, I thought, of Lex Orandi…
My little black Lab passed her first intermediate hunting test in Tennessee. Her nickname is Psycho Ruby for a reason . . . as a pro trainer said, what we have here is a 100 mph dog and a 10 mph handler . . . .
Catholics are pretty thin on the ground in East Tennessee, but we were able to find a parish fairly nearby. They are very small and obviously operating on a shoestring in a little prefab building that looks like it used to be a Baptist church. A very elderly but feisty priest and a big tough-looking deacon who preached a no-holds-barred homily.