Meanwhile… What Does The Prayer REALLY Say?
Even while the looniness is subsiding, some pretty strange things are still going on out there.
Here is something just plain … strange… from the Augustinians, posted by the Chicago province. HERE
I promise… I am not making this up.
And, just to be clear:
– Permission is granted to download, duplicate and distribute this Prayer Service for World Environment Day for use as an aid to prayer. Please credit the Augustinian Secretariate for Justice and Peace and www.midwestaugustinians.org/justpaxworldenviropray.html. Include the words “Used with permission” if printed or otherwise published.
I want to give full credit where credit is due!
It’s a little long for a blog post, but let’s see the whole thing, lest in the dawning of pure embarassment the Augustinians remove it from their site. As I look at this, I don’t even know how to post about it…. it’s that weird. I’ll just let it stand without additional comments.
To help you with your reading experience, please click the play button:
WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY Model 1
June 5
The U.N. General Assembly designated June 5 as World Environment Day, to deepen public awareness of the need to preserve and enhance the environment. That date was chosen because it was the opening of the U. N. Conference on the Human Environment, which led to the establishment of the U. N. Environment Program.
But wait! There’s more! Friends, you can’t make up stuff like this.
Call to Worship
All over the world the effects of the “El Niño” phenomenon have been felt: unseasonable and torrential rains, in unusual places; snow where there nas been none for many years; arduous drought, and more. Humanity suffers as a consequence: “It is believed that in this century 90 Amazonian tribes have disappeared.”
As true followers of Augustine, our concern should not be so much for the land, as if it were a goddess enraged because it is being exploited, as for humanity itself. Our ecological concern is an ethical concern, of justice and solidarity with those who suffer the consequences of these disasters.
The “El Niño” phenomenon is provoked by a lack of care in our relationships with Nature, which we offend relentlessly with our projects, with our residues, with our selfishness and drive for profits. Nature is at our service, because God gave it to us “to subjugate it,” but we should use it with respect and care because we have also been ordered “to care for it.”
It is our hope that this celebration might help us to discover that we should change anti-ecological habits, because if we do not respect Nature in all its forms, we will be offending one another.
•—
Leader: In the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. All: Amen. Leader: May the Creator and Lord of the Earth and of Life itself be will all of you.
Prayer
All: Come, God of the NORTH, God of the Earth. We invoke you and call you. You bring us the stars, stones, high mountains and fields of grain. Send forth your strength. Be here now!
Come, God of the EAST. We invoke you and call you,
Whirlwind, God of the birds that fly, [I said I was going to post without comment, but FOR THE LOVE OF GOD! what about the penguins?!?] God of the rising sun, of all there is to know. Send forth your light. Be here now!Come, God of the SOUTH, God of fire. We invoke you and call you. You bring us the warmth of summer. [THAT’S NORTHERNIST THINKING!]
Send us your fire. Be here with us now!Come, God of the WEST, God of water. We invoke you and call you.
You bring us feelings of care and love. You bring us the cleansing rain, the rivers and the sea. Send forth your soothing love. Be here with us now!Come, God of the center, Spirit of our hearts and our lives. We invoke you and call you. You bring us power, creativity and adventure. You bring us laughter and tears. You are our hope. It is you we long for. Send forth your Spirit. Be here now!
It’s rather …. beyond self-parody, isn’t it? Let’s go on!
First Reading: Genesis 1:1 – 2:4
Leader: We who have lost our sense and our senses – our touch, our smell, our vision of who we are; we who frantically force and press all things, without rest for body or spirit, hurting our earth and injuring ourselves: we call a halt.
We want to rest. We need to rest and allow the earth to rest. We need to reflect and to rediscover the mystery that lives in us, that is the ground of every unique expression of life, the source of fascination the calls all things to communion.
We declare a Sabbath, a space of quiet, for simply being and letting be, for recovering the great forgotten truths, for learning how to live again.
Litany
A Prayer of Sorrow
Reader 1: Our response will be: “We have forgotten who we are.” All: We have forgotten who we are.Reader 1: We have forgotten who we are. We have alienated ourselves from the unfolding of the cosmos.
We have become estranged from the movements of the earth. We have turned our backs on the cycles of life. All: We have forgotten who we are.Reader 2: We have sought only our own security. We have exploited simply for our own ends. We have distorted our knowledge. We have abused our power. All: We have forgotten who we are.
Reader 1: Now the land is barren. And the waters are poisoned. And the air is polluted. All: We have forgotten who we are.
Reader 2: Now the forests are dying. And the creatures are disappearing. And the humans are despairing. All: We have forgotten who we are.
Reader 1: We ask for forgiveness. We ask for the gift of remembering. We ask for the strength to change. All: Help us to remember who we are.
Commentary of St. Augustine
“This is what I love when I love my God. And what is this? I put my question to the earth and it replied, ‘I am not he.’ I questioned everything it held and they confessed the same. I questioned the sea and the great deep, and the teeming live creatures that crawl, and they replied, ‘We are not God; seek higher.’
“I questioned the gusty winds and every breeze, with all its flying creatures, told me, ‘Anaximenes was wrong; [OMG! And all this time….] I am not God.’ To the sky I put my question, to sun, moon and stars, but they denied me: ‘We are not the Go you seek.’
“And to all things that stood around the portals of my flesh, I said, ‘Tell me of my God. You are not he, but tell me something of him.’ Then they lifted up their voices and cries, ‘He made us.’ My questioning was my attentive spirit, and their reply, their beauty.” (–Confessions X, 6) !
Litany
Just keep reading. Really… this is a hoot. It’s rather like bad high school readers theatre.
A Prayer of Gratitude
Reader 1: Our response will be: We rejoice in all life. All: We rejoice in all life. Reader 1: We live in all things. All things live in us. All: We rejoice in all life. Reader 2: We live by the sun. We move with the stars. All: We rejoice in all life.Reader 1: We eat from the earth. We drink from the rain. We breathe from the air. All: We rejoice in all life. Reader 2: We share with the creatures. We have strength through their gifts. All: We rejoice in all life.
Reader 1: We depend on the forests. We have knowledge through their secrets. All: We rejoice in all life.Reader 2: We have the privilege of seeing and understanding. We have the responsibility of caring. We have the joy of celebrating. All: We rejoice in all life.
Reader 1: We are full of the grace of creation. We are grace-ful. We are grateful. We rejoice in all life. All: We rejoice in all life.
Leader: Blessing
That, dear readers, is what’s up with the Augustinians.
Doesn’t that make you want to join up?
This is where the Novus Ordo takes us when great vigilance is neglected.
By the way… what I posted above is only MODEL 1! There are also model 2 and model 3!
Model 2 begins thusly:
Opening Song
Leader: In the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. All: Amen. Leader: May the Creator and Lord of the Earth and of Life itself be with all of you.
Pardon [Needed: A world globe, a spray can, a small battery, a chunk of charcoal] Leader: We seek forgiveness as we bring forth symbols that we place around the globe.
Really. It does.
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‘We who have lost our sense..’ Pretty much covers it.
Welcome to 1974 when I was in high school. I am dissatisfied that stuff like this is still going on. Father is on target posting the Joy is Like the rain thread in the post.
A good way to test the rationality of various statements is to try to render them in Latin. How would one say “world environment day” in the language of the Romans? To start with, how would you say “environment”? What is that anyway? Nature? Earth? A region? A place? Surroundings? What in the world is ‘environment’ and how is it distinguished from ‘a place’? The more I think of it, the dumber I get.
It’s beyond self-parody, but you did a pretty good job, Fr Z.
See? This is why you’re supposed to PASS the Peace Pipe.
Not only does this “prayer service” stretch liturgical credulity, what is even more shocking is that there surely are those who will find the experience of this prayer service “meaningful.”
“Our response will be: “We have forgotten who we are.” All: We have forgotten who we are.”…yes indeed you have forgotten you are members of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic church which worships the Triune God ( Father, Son and Holy Spirit) not some of made up “god” of the north, south east or west..St Augustine please pray for your wayward spiritual sons and daughters
“we’ve forgotten our senses.. we cant find our cars in the parking lot”
Oh basketball god of the midwest come forth and help the Pacers win the series. amen.
oy vey.
“we’ve forgotten our senses.. we cant find our cars in the parking lot”
Oh basketball god of the midwest come forth and help the Pacers win the series. amen.
oy vey.
“we’ve forgotten our senses.. we cant find our cars in the parking lot”
Oh basketball god of the midwest come forth and help the Pacers win the series. amen.
oy vey.
Do they really teach people that human activity causes El Nino? Pathetic. We Catholics are supposed to be rational.
Fr. Z said: “This is where the Novus Ordo takes us when great vigilance is neglected.”
I feel it quite unfair to blame Paul VI’s missal for this zaniness. There is nothing in that missal’s rubrics or texts that would inherently give rise to or justify this loopiness.
Augustinians from Chicago? Probably educated at CTU. The “cardinal directional” prayer is common at Contextual Theology Union.
Andrew,
Go to YouTube and enter “The Front Fell Off” by Clarke and Dawe. Click the 2.13 timed one and find out about “the environment”. It’s a scream.
I’m pretty sure that the only thing sane in there was the fact that they used the right words for the Sign of the Cross.
Also the prayer with the cardinal directions brings back uncomfortable memories of my aunt’s Wiccan wedding.
“we live in all things. All things live in us.”
Not that I am aware of.
The first section reminds me of witches incantations that Nora Roberts put in her books. Not that I read those anymore. :)
And what about emus and ostriches???
Well, I was all for swapping out our daily Masses pleading for fair weather for our Corpus Christi procession with this celebration calling forth the gods of the Four Directions, until they got to the part about calling forth the God of the West for “cleansing rain”. Thanks, but no thanks. We’ve got enough rain as it is. I think instead I’ll just request we add “Joy is Like the Rain” and “Rain Down” to our repertoire of Procession Hymns in order to lift our spirits as we drown in the rain.
BTW: Is it just me, or did anyone notice this “celebration” is polytheistic? This isn’t even Christian let alone Catholic! Or is this not supposed to be a Catholic/Christian celebration? I’m confused.
Let’s see…first the ritual White Liberal Guilt about the disappearing Amazon tribes, followed by blatant appropriation of U.S. Plains tribes’ sacred prayer traditions. In my world, respect doesn’t look exactly like religious exploitation. But I bet they really oppose colonialism, because it, you know, steals the things precious to others for the oppressor’s cultural elevation at museums and fancy dress parties….
“Joy is like the rain.”
I like the rain. It washes memories off the sidewalks of life.
Ha ha ha ha ha.
This is flat-out occultism / Wicca 101, where the spirits of the four elements are invoked to form a protective circle and a ritual drama is recited in the hopes of channeling those forces / entities. This is a problem that needs to be looked into for the sake of souls. (My services are available if the position of Witchfinder General becomes open.)
Tim Capps is right.
Make a “liturgy committee” (are we wary yet?) of Wiccans and people who use “gift” as a verb, and this is exactly what you’d get.
“Joy is like the rain?” Except right now where it is flooding!
I wonder what the average age of these few remaining Augustinians is? Hmm, let me guess:75?
Scanning the post made me think of “liturgical dancers” like in L.A. with the women that come out with their bowls and dance to the 4 directions or some such a thing. Too bed it is not Catholic…
As a former wiccan, It follows the Neo-Pagan form of opening the Watchtowers very closely, minus casting the protective circle first…
I personally would classify this as diabolical. Blessed Bartolomeo Longo pray for us. St. Michael the Archangel, pray for us.
Who says that neglect of the enviroment causes the age-old “nino phenomenon?
There was A Similar Service (but a bit More Pagan) that happened recently in the Philippines:
http://senseofthesacred.blogspot.com/2012/06/animism-in-guise-of-ecological.html
The “El Niño” phenomenon is provoked by a lack of care in our relationships with Nature, which we offend relentlessly with our projects, with our residues, with our selfishness and drive for profits. Nature is at our service, because God gave it to us “to subjugate it,” but we should use it with respect and care because we have also been ordered “to care for it.”
Except that we have evidence demonstrating the existence of El Nino going back to the Holocene Epoch (10,000 BC). I guess our Neolithic forebears were just as efficient at wrecking the environment with their wreckless innovations (fire, the wheel, cattle raising, sewing) and irresponsible lifestyles (hunting & gathering, subsistence farming, dying at age 30).
I think the Chicago Augustinians need to take their paganism all the way, straight up with no chaser, and start setting themselves up some Wicker Men for Samhain this year. I’m sure they have a list of candidates they’d like to use to appease the angry god of the South.
This, almost, makes me want to say:
“Martin Luther, pray for them.”
The Chicken
The original link is dead, but at the new link:
http://midwestaugustinians.org/news/wed13 you will find more, much more. First is their so thoughtful explanation of why this is all so important. Then, near the bottom, you will find links to Models 1, 2 and 3.
As an engineering kind of guy, I really enjoyed Model 2, with its “world globe, a spray can, a small battery, a chunk of charcoal.”
Truly, you can’t make this stuff up!
And of course, they also provide a bevy of links to the UN.
“I personally would classify this as diabolical.” — Michael Kavanagh
It does remind me of C.S. Lewis’ insights from the Screwtape Letters–that is, that by guiding the writing of prayers like this, the Devil is trying to make Christians into magicians. I mean that it is not just that I do not happen to care for the style. Getting my tongue out of my cheek, I ‘d have to admit that the use “gift” as a verb would not have been proof that someone has fallen away from the faith! No, using “gift” as a verb is only a red flag, a sign that someone is vulnerable to the glamour of novelty. Even novelty is not, per se, a sin. It is the love of novelty that provides increased opportunities for the evil one to propose error.
What makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck is that they are making prayers into incantations, imagining that they can manipulate the power of God (I think the jargon is to desire to become “co-creators” with God, which quietly replaces a desire for boring old “holiness”, not to mention unimaginatively “seeking the Will of God”) by the use of a formula taken from nature-worshippers. As an example, from Letter 23:
“…For a long time it will be quite impossible to remove spirituality from his life. Very well then; we must corrupt it. No doubt you have often practised transforming yourself into an angel of light as a parade-ground exercise. Now is the time to do it in the face of the Enemy. The World and the Flesh have failed us; a third Power remains. And success of this third kind is the most glorious of all. A spoiled saint, a Pharisee, an inquisitor, or a magician, makes better sport in Hell than a mere common tyrant or debauchee.
“Looking round your patient’s new friends I find that the best point of attack would be the border-line between theology and politics. Several of his new friends are very much alive to the social implications of their religion. That, in itself, is a bad thing; but good can be made out of it….”
“…Certainly we do not want men to allow their Christianity to flow over into their political life, for the establishment of anything like a really just society would be a major disaster. On the other hand we do want, and want very much, to make men treat Christianity as a means; preferably, of course, as a means to their own advancement, but, failing that, as a means to anything – even to social justice. The thing to do is to get a man at first to value social justice as a thing which the Enemy demands, and then work him on to the stage at which he values Christianity because it may produce social justice. For the Enemy will not be used as a convenience. Men or nations who think they can revive the Faith in order to make a good society might just as well think they can use the stairs of Heaven as a short cut to the nearest chemist’s shop. Fortunately it is quite easy to coax humans round this little corner. Only today I have found a passage in a Christian writer where he recommends his own version of Christianity on the ground that “only such a faith can outlast the death of old cultures and the birth of new civilisations”. You see the little rift? “Believe this, not because it is true, but for some other reason.” That’s the game…”
Fr., Bet you a cold microbrew of your choice that was written by a lay minister of some kind, probably a graduate student in Theology.
I am TOTALLY offended that they were so geocentric as to write this from the Northern Hemisphere point of view. Penguins can’t get no respect.
In our next episode of Whacked-out New Theology, a pseudo-pagan radical environmentalist theologian attempts to write Catholic prayers. Hilarity ensues.
“We rejoice in all life.” We will manifest our joy in supporting and defending Life: the lives of the unborn, of the disabled, of the elderly. “We rejoice in all life.”
It’s code. I think it’s the Winds Message.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winds_Code
I never thought that I would say this, but this stuff almost (almost, mind you) leads me to miss Fr. Bob Hoey’s Experimental Liturgy Book from the 1960s. You could tell that those who deformed the liturgy then were educated, not so with this.
In Christ,
These Augustinians made their brother priest, the late Rev. Dudley Day’s life HELL. Father Day was a holy priest and a wonderful confessor who – unlike many priests around here – actually made time to visit the sick. We at St. John Cantius were lucky to have him assist Father Phillips for so many years before his death.
These Augustinians are also in charge of the parish – oops “worship space” — that is near our Michigan cottage. Any wonder why I drive the 45 minutes to get to Father Sirico and the TLM in Grand Rapids?
Also, while I have no problem praying for animals and, having volunteered for animal welfare work often do, the subtext in most of these prayers is that nature is kind and benevolent if mean ol’ humans weren’t around trying to make improvements, inventions and investments. They are all very Rosseau’s “noble savage” in their prayers. Yet, I have never known a Catholic missionary who did not beg for those dirty old dollars to buy up-to-date medical equipment and beg for vaccines, well digging technology, building materials.
We are Catholics NOT Luddites. We are meant to be careful stewards of the Earth and use the brains and brawn God gave us. Rabbi Daniel Lapin has said that some people look to the mountains and see the glory of God but he looks ALSO to the skyscrapers and see the greater Glory of God working through man.
We Catholics (and Orthodox) of the Syriac-Malankara Church have a prayer toward each cardinal direction, invoking the Most Holy Trinity on Feasts and Solemn days. Nothing at all like this though.
Malankara Orthodox: youtube.com/watch?v=STHH5Y8DWvY
Syro-Malankara Catholic: youtu.be/ZJOqAp-jr6c?t=1h2m25s
EAST
Celebrant : Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.
Response : May His grace and mercy be upon us, weak and sinful servants, in
both worlds forever and ever. Amen
Celebrant : O Heavenly Peace, who by Thy death gave tranquility to the
Heavenly; and who by Thy sacrifice on the Cross reconciled the world with Thy
Father; and the Savior who saved the gentiles by Thy blessed cross; and the
pinnacle of Love, by Thy love and resurrection, joined the separated; on this day of
Thy resurrection we beseech Thee to do away with all conflicts on earth. May we be protected from all troubles by Thy blessed Cross. We glorify Thee, Thy Father
and Thy Holy Spirit now and for ever.
Response: Amen.
Lord, our God sea of mercy-
On this Resurrection feast
I shall sing hymns that may meet
Thy Glory divine and great
Gentiles all saved by Thy Cross
Shall praise and adore Thee,
On this joyous feast today
We do pray and cry a – loud ..
Kurielaison…… Kurielaison … Kurielaison…..
WEST
Celebrant : Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.
Response : May His grace and mercy be upon us, weak and sinful servants, in
both worlds forever and ever. Amen
Celebrant : Christ, our Lord, on this day of Thy resurrection we are rejoicing with
happiness and satisfaction. May Thy peace and harmony dwell among us. And
may Thy love and affection make their habitation in us. Grant us the grace to
venerate Thy cross and confess Thy resurrection. Make us and our departed ones
rejoice in Thy Kingdom. May we worship Thy Lordship, Our Lord and Eternal God
for ever and ever.
Response : Amen.
Truth of Thy Resurrection
Was convincing and clear
Still those wicked evil ones
Denounced and rejected it.
He whom Jews did hang on Cross
Rose in glory from His tomb
On this Joyous feast today
We do pray and cry a – loud ..
Kurielaison…… Kurielaison … Kurielaison…..
NORTH
Celebrant : Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.
Response : May His grace and mercy be upon us, weak and sinful servants, in
both worlds forever and ever. Amen
Celebrant : Our Lord and Our God, make us worthy to be protected under the
wings of Thy Cross; and be identified with Thy resurrection, and to believe in Thy
rising from the dead; and to observe The commandments in Thy evangalion; and
to do Thy will; and to observe all Thy commandments; and to take refuge in the
prayers of the just and the righteous who loved Thee. May we and our departed
ones be propitiated through their prayers. May we offer glory to Thee, to Thy Father
and to Thy Holy spirit now and for ever.
Response : Amen.
Lord ! Have mercy on us all
Show mercy and compassion
Do not ignore Thy faithful
Sheep who witnessed Thy passion
By Flag of Thy Holy cross
Elevate crown of Christendom
On this Joyous feast today
We do pray and cry a – loud ..
Kurielaison…… Kurielaison … Kurielaison…..
SOUTH
Celebrant : Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.
Response : May His grace and mercy be upon us, weak and sinful servants, in
both worlds forever and ever. Amen
Celebrant : Make us worthy, O Lord to praise this day of Thy resurrection on the
third day together with the heavenly hosts. Make us also worthy to celebrate Thy
feasts and receive grace and blessing from Thee. Take away from us the rods of
wrath and all punishments by Thy Holy cross and by the power indwelling in Thy
Holy Saints. May we Praise and glorify Thee, Thy Father and Thy Holy Spirit now
and for ever.
Response : Amen
Refuge to afflicted, sick
Poor and all destitute
Forlorn and widows alike –
Refuge is the Most high God
That Thy peace may descend on
Us and on our Holy Church
On this Joyous feast today
We do pray and cry a – loud ..
Kurielaison…… Kurielaison … Kurielaison…..
EAST
Celebrant : Thou whom – Angel-s always se-rve…
Response : Holy a-rt – Thou, O G – od…
Celebrant : Thou whom – Cherubi-ms always bl-ess…
Response : Holy a-rt Thou, Almigh-ty…
Celebrant : Thou whom Seraphi-ms sancti-fy…
Response : Holy a-rt Thou, Immo-rtal….
Celebrant : Thy faithful Church’s children we do pra-y….
Response : Who has risen for us – Have merc-y o-n us….
WEST
Celebrant : Thou whom – Fier- y Glorif- y…
Response : Holy a-rt – Thou, O G – od…
Celebrant : Thou whom – Spiritua-ls Extoll-eth…
Response : Holy a-rt Thou, Almigh-ty…
Celebrant : Thou whom Earthl-y worshi-ppi-ng….
Response : Holy a-rt Thou, Immo-rtal….
Celebrant : With repentance sinners we pra-y….
Response : Who has risen for us – Have merc-y o-n us….
NORTH
Celebrant : Thou whom – Heavenl-y Ador-eth…
Response : Holy a-rt – Thou, O G – od…
Celebrant : Thou whom – Departed always praise…
Response : Holy a-rt Thou, Almigh-ty…
Celebrant : Thou whom Earthl-y do venera- te…..
Response : Holy a-rt Thou, Immo-rtal….
Celebrant : With repentese sinners we pra-y….
Response : Who has risen for us – Have merc-y o-n us….
SOUTH
Celebrant : Lord have mer – cy upon us…
Response : Lord have pi – ty and me – rcy….
Celebrant : Lord accept our supplication – and have merc-y upo-n us.
Response : Glory be to – Thee O G – od…..
Celebrant : Glory be to – Thee Crea – tor……
Response : Glory to Thee Christ and King who has compa – ssion on
Thy – se – rvants.. Barekmor.
Our Father who art in Heaven ………
Hail Mary Full of Grace ……
What a surprise coming from the Augustinians. Because they are otherwise so orthodox. Lol.
The first thing I thought of, after I cleaned up the coffee spew was this:
First Witch
1 When shall we three meet again?
2 In thunder, lightning, or in rain?
Second Witch
3 When the hurlyburly’s done,
4 When the battle’s lost and won.
I was going to leave a comment, but I didn’t want to leave my “residue” on your blog. Oh wait, I guess I just commented anyway. I must have “lost my sense and my senses.”
Tim Capps :
This is flat-out occultism
If labels are important, I’d say “syncretist pantheism”, personally — though the word “Apostasy” would be just as accurate.
It’s just mind-bogglingly ghastly ; and I would defy ANYONE to come up with ANYTHING in the Vatican II documents that provides ANY support for this kind of uncatholic gibberish.
As a convert from paganism (witchcraft), and later revert to the Church, this strikes me as a simple invocation called the “calling of the corners.” That is basically a ritual to open what is sometimes called the “watchtowers” where guardian spirits/angelic principalities guard. It is used to “sanctify” the protective “Solomonic circle” where you work your spell/evocation. Interesting they are invoking (not evoking), which is calling the “god of the NORTH/SOUTH/EAST/WEST” into oneself.
Bad, bad, bad mojo!
This whole thing is just way too freakin’ pagan for me!
I really do not understand why the Holy Father has not called for a formal “visitation” of the Oder worldwide, put them into receivership and assigned a delegate to help them renew their weather beaten observances. Donors in the North, South, East and West should be very concerned that Augustinians are promoting the occult in such a transparent fashion on the www. . Oh dear, how sad.
And their just one of many who get a pass.
…the only thing missing is naming the “angelic” principalities that are associated with the cardinal directions.
This is what happens when you eat mushrooms and listen to Creedence before you compose your prayers.
“Joy is like the rain.”
I like the rain. It washes memories off the sidewalks of life.
It also destroys giant papier mâché puppets…
“We eat from the earth. We drink from the rain.”
Sounds like Tom Bombadil, ‘Eat earth! Dig deep! Drink water! Go to sleep!’
“We who have lost…our senses”, indeed!
“we who frantically force and press all things”
I don’t like ironing either.
Dear Father Z, I am properly confused, befaddled and indignant by their hocus-pocus malarky but not before I laughed our loud at your comment, “Come, God of the EAST. We invoke you and call you, Whirlwind, God of the birds that fly, [I said I was going to post without comment, but FOR THE LOVE OF GOD! what about the penguins?!?]. Priceless is what it is! Enjoy the rest of the day as you certainly made mine. Pax Christi.
When the God of fire and the God of water meet, do they become the God of steam?
Just askin….
Honestly, Father, the inmates are running the asylum!
If
they agreed , with Pope Benedict wasn’t it? that the greatest antinatural/ecological crime is murdering babies in their mothers wombs
Then , pace Athelstan above, one could even give them a pass on crap science re the el niño phenomenon.
“We have forgotten who we are” all right — if we are supposed to be Augustinians! Didn’t he have enough of the Manicheans during his lifetime? He shouldn’t have to fight them again now… but really. These folks must be the Perfecti who do no work and eat a pure vegan diet while the rest do everything and wallow in guilt. just like the FIRST manicheans…
Micheal Thoma: Thanks for posting that GORGEOUS liturgy. Why do people make garbage up when there is so much real stuff????????
Another beat me to it, but let us not be narrow minded in our defense of flightless birds:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flightless_bird
While penguins may be well known and vaguely cute, let us not unjustly discriminate against the uglier flightless birds…
The prayer of the Syriac-Malankara Church posted @Michael_Thoma shows the difference between the way the Church takes non-Christian customs and redeems them and makes them Catholic, as opposed to the pantheistic invocation from the “Augustinian” site posted by Father Z.
Instead of four discrete gods with four discrete areas of activity, the Syriac-Malankara prayer makes clear that it is the same Triune God addressed as they face each direction. Yes, since we’re Christians, we’re supposed to assume that each reference to “God” refers to the one Triune God, but that’s not clear on the face of the prayer. In fact, it’s interesting that the Syriac-Malankara prayer makes a point of clearly renaming God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit every time, as if they want to make sure there’s no possibility that the prayer could be mistaken as pantheistic.
Instead of “invoking” (basically, commanding – look at how imperious the “prayer” is) the god of each direction, the Syriac-Malankara prayer glorifies the same God who rules over each direction and prays for mercy and blessings us, his sinful servants.
Actually, I don’t think this is very funny. I agree with @MichaelKavanagh. This is diabolical.
Paganism that developed prior to or apart from any knowledge of Christianity was often still actually seeking God. As such, we can often see where they sometimes “got it right”, because what they were attempting to understand was the real God. That’s why the Catholic Church can assume and transform those customs that were partially right into our own tradition.
But if I recall correctly from my own, very short, dabbling in Wicca, we don’t really know much about the druids or other beliefs “Wicca” is supposedly based on. If it were actually based on real beliefs, again it might have a chance of “getting it right.” But since Wicca is basically just whatever the people who follow it want it to be, and since it attempts to express individual “spirituality”, and especially since it calls on “spirits” and attempts to understand and control the “supernatural”, it is very dangerous.
As Pope Francis said, “When we do not profess Jesus Christ, the saying of Léon Bloy comes to mind: ‘Anyone who does not pray to the Lord prays to the devil'”
“This is where the Novus Ordo takes us when great vigilance is neglected.”
I think if this statement was translated into Latin, it would be rendered as “non sequitur.”
The people who perpetrated so many of the liturgical absurdities after 1969 – what Mass do you suppose they were formed under?
While there are all sorts of ritual magic, from antiquity to the present, that use Christian language, not excluding naming the Persons of the Holy Trinity, I do not assume these Augustinians are intending to invoke elemental or cardinal-point spirits, or peculiarly likely to succeed in attracting evil spirits unintentionally by their forms of address.
“As true followers of Augustine,” they would do well to aspire to avoid a tin- or cloth-ear, and to achieve a humble, simple, clear style.
Is there some quirky recent tradition of addressing God as “Whirlwind” (presumably deriving from one or another ‘clever’ translation of Ruach in Genesis 1:2) – something I do not recall ever seeing before ?
MaryH quoted Pope Francis thusly: “As Pope Francis said, “When we do not profess Jesus Christ, the saying of Léon Bloy comes to mind: ‘Anyone who does not pray to the Lord prays to the devil’””
Exactly. Pray for these sons of St. Augustine. They are, apparently so far off the wacky end. I was half expecting some rubric to call for drawing a pentagram on the floor with salt and placing red candles at the cardinal points.
Wonder if you can do this if you haven’t worked out your enneagram or walked a labrynth.
This has to be the stupidest thing I’ve ever read from a cleric. And this from someone who survived Fordham in the 1970s.
Wait a minute.
We began to sing Joy is Like the Rain at weekly Mass just about the time the nuns’ skirts got shorter back when I attended the Dominican Girls Academy. I even learned to play it on my guitar. I felt so proud. And cool. Now look what’s happened…those same nuns had a “Spirit Picnic” this year to celebrate Pentecost.
“we want rest. We need rest…”.
This we know is true by reading the entire “thing”. But I still prefer “now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep…”
Model 5 (model 4 was eaten by the dog)
Oh god of google, I pray you tell me, which way did I go?
Guide me in my SEARCH for meaning as I seem to have lost my sense and senses
Are they East, or are they West?
And if you see fit to find them could you display them with a zoom view? Just askin’
Whew! Now need rest…
I love Saint Augustine and I feel so badly for him.
Maryh is of course right, this IS diabolical.
I remember something similar in a prayer service for peace shortly after the beginning of the Iraq war put on by Pax Christi USA. How does one respond to such an event? I left the pew and went to the Adoration Chapel to pray the Rosary in reparation.
I draw my profundity from a monkey throwing faeces, I rejoice in all life.
Well I don’t rejoice in all life. We can start by subtracting cockroaches and ants (especially the black ants which invade my kitchen this time of year.)
We have forgotten who we are. Wow. They can say that again.
Dorothy Parker said it all: “tonstant weader fwowed up”.
My late uncle, an Augustinian priest ordained in 1946, was in Nigeria for practically all of his relatively short ministry – he died in 1971 aged 50. My father had a photo of him with the local witchdoctor (uncle in cassock, witch doctor in full regalia) in one of the villages in his mission area where spiritism was the dominant belief. It now appears that the spiritism has crossed over to the Augustinians themselves!
Were he still alive I’m pretty sure he’d be disgusted at all this carry-on. I recall my father telling me that his comments on the 1960s changes were pretty caustic.
Oh my people, what have I done to you? How have I offended you?
Answer Me!
Having written that I did not think they were “peculiarly likely to succeed in attracting evil spirits unintentionally by their forms of address” earlier, I recalled how far R.H. Benson’s The Necromancers was attentive to such dangers in relation to strictly necromantic ‘Spiritualism’ – which is worth thinking about, also more broadly. In effect, Benson answers the memorable words of Mephistophilis in Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus. When Mephistophilis says, “I came hither of mine own accord”, Faustus asks, “Did not my conjuring speeches raise thee?” Mephistophilis expands, “That was the cause, but yet per accident, For when we hear one rack the name of God, Abjure the Scriptures, and his Saviour Christ, We fly, in hope to get his glorious soul”. Benson contends that something more ignorant and naive might also suffice.
Though I still do not see how this – ritual? rite? – is peculiarly open to ‘letting in’ an evil spirit, the cast of mind which deliberately produces something like this with such an appearance of (self-)satisfaction might indeed be in heightened danger of extending ‘rejoicing in all life’ to an uncritical rejoicing in a ‘macrobe’ (to borrow a term from Lewis’s That Hideous Strength) should one present himself. (Its explicit anti-Gaiaism is a good thing, but not necessarily enough, for example.)
Benson’s futuristic Lord of the World also presents an interesting comparison in its treatment of the new seasonal festival rituals (starting with II.IV.iii), which I would warmly recommend (re)reading (or listening to: the LibriVox reading-aloud has also been loaded on You Tube, I just discovered).
The sad thing is that the same people, who want to pray directional prayers, do not want to have churches where we pray toward the east, have pictures of the Last Judgment to the west, put the Gospel ambo to the north on the Gospel side to face the symbolic direction of paganism, and have the epistle ambo to the south and call it the epistle side. And they want to process around and pray for the land, but they wanted to get rid of all the processional feasts and all the traditional prayers for the land (like Rogation Days).
If you leave a vacuum where good things used to be, bad things come to fill it.
My patron saint must have been looking down with sadness on a certain of his monks 500 years ago. Now on this is well.
I often add a very brief prayer along these lines on various occasions of saying other prayers, after or before Mass, etc. No real set form it is usually pretty spontaneous. I have been doing so since RCIA, during which time (as a convert from Protestantism) I developed for obvious reasons a special interest in Augustine, Paul, also various English martyrs… so:
St Augustine, pray for my continued conversion, that I may be granted wisdom and understanding of the mysteries of God, that I may be drawn into more intimate communion to His church, that I might learn better to flee from sin and humbly make confession of my sins and errors that I may be counted among the faithful confessors of God, etc.
And he is one of my favorite saints who I very often have recourse to, he is in my “personal litany” with several others I frequently call on.
So such a prayer, I think, is much needed for these monks who now claim the legacy and name of the great Doctor & Bishop of Hippo.
It saddens me that his name is used for such purposes, but then again also look at the horrible misused and abuses of Jesus’ Holy Name for political & other uses. These people, especially those who know better, i.e. even remotely well formed priests and religious, will have a lot to answer one day, I’m afraid.
Being unable to read their souls or their hearts I pray that through Jesus Christ they may come to true faith and understanding of the priorities and proper place of Christian theology and prayer, and the place of the Church hierarchical in Christian life on earth (ie the proper role of priests, the above aberration seems to be rather horizontal and lay centered.)
Pray for our church! Pray for lost souls! Pray for the conversion of heretics!
Suburbanbanshee,
You are exactly right.
And I can’t help but worry whether it was deliberate . . . .
EARTH! WIND! FIRE! WATER! HEART!
***
GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO PLANET!
CAP-TIN PLA-NET, HE’S A HERO, GONNA TAKE POLLUTION DOWN TO ZERO!
Those who regularly follow this blog and write on it can, no doubt, visualize it playing out complete with frowny faces, breast beating, wailing and grinding of teeth, and maybe even some swirling liturgical dance. When these “liturgies” do come to pass in a few weeks, I hope that some of them will be videotaped and placed in the public domain so that this lunacy will be exposed pro multis and the many of a much wider audience will see its departure from the Church and all who claim to follow Christ.
Suburbanbanshee says, “If you leave a vacuum where good things used to be, bad things come to fill it.” An American Mother adds, “And I can’t help but worry whether it was deliberate . . . .”
“Leave a vacuum” , ‘create’ a vacuum? In any case, the deliberateness, all the determined conscious ‘care’ and effort that must have gone into producing such examples as this and the excerpts from the LA celebration and the ‘circusy’ one video-linked in earlier posts, is dismaying. As is the style of the (in some sense) official commentary in those excerpts (though I cannot follow the details of the ‘circusy’ one instantly by ear). There seems such an abyss of lack of circumspection, and of honest, humble critical reflection! Whether the bishops in the excerpts, and whoever is finally responsible for the Chicago Augustinians, are simply in agreement, or feel effectively powerless to object and correct, the result is equally disheartening.
It’s worth noting that vocations to the Midwest Augustinians have risen significantly in the last five or so years. As recently as 2008, there was only one man in formation (2 nationwide). Today there are 11 for the province (33 nationwide).
We control the vertical. We control the horizontal. We can… Sorry, this stuff is beyond the Outer Limits!
“Be Here Now,is the name of a book from the 70’s.It dealt with eastern mysticism although it seemed more like an acid trip scribbling .It was so popular that you can still see copies in the library. Look it up ,even the cover will give an idea of what is in there. Would’t be surprised if allot of that “stuff” is taken right from that book.
Don’t we have earth day already?
I thought this was a parody….apparently not
What about the poor handicapped birds who can’t fly? Blessed are the birds with wing deformities!
This moving and illuminating ceremony has brought tears to my eyes.
Happily, not tears of sadness… :-)
I can forsee – coming to a post-tsunami ecclesial gathering fairly soon, the following antiphon:
Accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
Latch on to the affirmative
Don’t mess with Mister In-Between
You’ve got to spread joy up to the maximum
Bring gloom down to the minimum
Have faith or pandemonium
Liable to walk upon the scene
(To illustrate his last remark
Jonah in the whale, Noah in the ark
What did they do
Just when everything looked so dark)
Man, they said we better
Accentuate the positive…” etc etc
“Come, God of the EAST. We invoke you and call you, Whirlwind, God of the birds that fly, God of the rising sun, of all there is to know. Send forth your light. Be here now!”
– – –
For all those conscious in the 1990s, these words from “The Craft” (1996):
Nancy: Hail to the Guardians of the Watchtowers of the East – powers of air and invention! Hear us! Bonnie: Hail to the Guardians of the Watchtowers of the South – powers of fire and feeling! Hear us! Rochelle: Hail to the Guardians of the Watchtowers of the West – powers of water and intuition! Hear us!
Sarah: Hail to the Guardians of the Watchtowers of the North – powers of mother and earth! Hear us!
Nancy: Aid us in our magical working on this May’s eve. Serpent of Old, Rule of Deeps, Guardian of the Bitter Sea. Show us your glory. Show us your power! We pray of thee. We pray of thee. We invoke thee! Oh, Serpent One, hear our calls, hear our prayers! Ancient Wise One, teach us thy ways! We summon and stir thee! Lend us your powers, show us your glory! We invoke thee! We invoke thee! We invoke thee!… . blah, blah, blah… .
– – –
Perhaps the august ones have seen the video.
oh my goodness…how funny. Poor Augustine. He must be whirling.
Wanda…yes that’s it, they have clearly stated “we have lost our sense”…oh that’s perfect!
I guess the penguins will have to bloody well fend for themselves. Not to mention the emu’s! Aren’t they a flightless bird?? The ostriches! Is there no one to care for them??
Warren, you are right. It is a scary invocation of something, much more than a plea to God our Heavenly Father. The tone is frightening too, more of a command to the Lord to obey and come at once, as if one is harnessing a supernatural power to do one’s bidding. Crikey.