“Meno chiacchiere… più processioni! … Less chattering … more processions!”

I received a video which has some good grist for our Catholic identity mills.

First, note that people are happy. Joy is a mark of the working of the Holy Spirit. Even in adversity it is possible to have Christian joy.

Next, an old Italian bishop once growled something I’ve shared here many times. In view of the nonsense that most modern Church endeavors devolve into he said, “Meno chiacchiere… più processioni!… Less chattering … more processions!” He got it right. These popular devotions do us a world of good.

Also, let’s have great respect for the ways of our forebears. They loved loved loved their Faith and they polished it and smoothed it and put it into beautiful settings such as churches built with hope, like a jewel into a broach or a ring. Then they handed the lovely jewel and setting to us, to guard and polish and maybe even make more beautiful by adding to the setting. The ways of our forebears are venerable. And as Ratzinger wrote, What was sacred then is sacred now.

Madonna del Sacro Monte: 2018 Festival from Joe Minnella Studios on Vimeo.

¡Hagan lío!

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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5 Comments

  1. APX says:

    First, note that people are happy. Joy is a mark of the working of the Holy Spirit. Even in adversity it is possible to have Christian joy.

    ^This. People at my Latin Mass Community are so miserable and dower. I was looking at the pictures from our Marian Procession last week and everyone looks so dower and depressed in the pictures. We take ourselves too seriously sometimes.

  2. UncleBlobb says:

    I often wonder at the ineffable (!) mystery of Padre Pio: it seems that he was and is God’s advance answer to keep some authentic part of Italian Catholicism flourishing. Glad he made appearance by statue in this film and at this festival, along with “La Madonna”, of course.

  3. Kathleen10 says:

    That’s fantastic. It is not easy to hold such events and keep it an environment where it is children and family-friendly. The easy trap is to make it worldly and vulgar, with rude language and behavior. We are all affected by this rotten culture, but if you can keep that determination and keep it Catholic and family oriented, what a wonderful tradition! It will grow, because it’s true and it’s beautiful, but even if it stays small, it’s still sincere and beautiful.
    People who have young children don’t always know, those children will remember that day with such fondness and will recreate it for their children as if it was a tradition going on for 100 years. This is what gives children an identity they will love and defend. Praise God and ala familia!

  4. Semper Gumby says:

    More processions indeed. An article from CWR last week, about an “urban pilgrimage” in the St. Louis area:

    https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2019/05/08/why-these-men-walked-24-miles-to-the-rome-of-the-midwest/

    “The idea was to start at a parish in Manchester, a western St. Louis suburb, and trek 24 miles along sidewalks, paths, through parks, and occasionally on road shoulders all the way to downtown St. Louis.”

  5. Nan says:

    My little Byzantine church has processions, as does Holy Cross, down the street in NE Minneapolis.

    Holy Cross has a lecture series the 3rd Sunday of Easter, this year focused on St Helena, who shaped our devotions by finding the Cross, bringing the Holy Stairs to Rome, etc. There was a procession before Vespers.

    The NE Minneapolis Catholic Collectivevis sponsoring the 15th annual NE Minneapolis Eucharistic Procession Sunday, June 9 beginning at 3 PM at Holy Cross, going to several churches and ending at St Maron. There’s a shuttle bus From St Maron to Holy Cross, parking is available at St Maron and St Boniface.

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