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

From a reader:

At a Mass in our Diocese this past Sunday, the priest was running very low on consecrated hosts.  Even after breaking some of the hosts in order to distribute more, it was clear that there would not be near enough to accommodate everyone.  When the hosts ran out, the priest returned to the altar and said the words of consecration over additional unconsecrated hosts.  He then used these to distribute to those who did not receive from the first set.  Are these hosts validly consecrated?  What should a priest do in a situation where it becomes clear that a substantial portion of the congregation will not be able to receive?

The consecration was valid.  When a priest says the words of consecration over valid matter and with the proper intention, the Eucharist is confected.

However, while breaking Hosts during Communion is one thing, consecrating more during Communion is another.

It is permissible to break Hosts in great need.  But the Eucharist should not be consecrated apart from its proper moment, in the Canon or Eucharistic Prayer of Holy Mass. 

An exception is when, for example, it is discovered that a chalice full of water with a couple drops of wine was "consecrated" by mistake. Also, if the priest is pretty sure that he didn’t say the form of consecration properly, he could repeat it later, even conditionally.  The point is that the priest must consume both kinds, therefore he must have both kinds.  It is not necessary for Mass to be valid that anyone else consume the Eucharist.  Even if people don’t receive, they have been to Mass. 

Another situation where the priest would need to consecrate outside of the normal moment would be if he finds that the Host has disappeared somehow.  Perhaps wind took it.  Imagine Mass in a war zone on the hood of a jeep.

In the old tract on "defects" of Mass at the beginning of the pre-Conciliar, Extraordinary Form of the Roman Missal, provision is made for a "missing" Host.  Not only does De Defectibus speak about wind, but perhaps some animal got the Host.  I can certainly imagine a bird swooping down, or a big rat, etc.  There is a funny story about that last one, as a matter of fact, but I will save it.  Another situation for the disappearance of the Host during Mass, thus requiring the priest to consecrate again, would be – as described in De Defectibus – and I love this – is that it disappears because of a miracle. 

Yes, miracles happen. 

I don’t recommend that you kneel in the pews asking God to "disappear" the Host.  The priest, on the other hand….

But to consecrate not so as to assure the validity of Mass, but that more people can have Communion… no.  Not right.

The best thing to do, IMO, is simply to explain the situation and urge people to make a spiritual Communion, perhaps offering to say Mass again (if it is permitted to binate etc. for pastoral reasons, etc.) immediately after.

I have had to do this, as a matter of fact, at a parish where I was visiting.  I was told that there should be a full ciborium in the tabernacle: there wasn’t.  I explained.  No one threw a nutty.  It was a "teachable moment".  I took a couple minutes after Mass to run through the points and everyone was fine.

If you want to see what a Catholic newspaper should be like, check out this article in The Catholic Herald, the UK’s best Catholic weekly.

Here is a great story.

Preamble: Keep in mind as you read that NCR in the USA touted a piece by Notre Dame’s dissident liberal columnist Richard McBrien which ran down Eucharistic adoration.

Now here is the photo and article from The Catholic Herald about a great initiative at St. Patrick’s on Soho Square in a trouble area of central London.  Fr. Sherbrooke is pastor there.  I have visited St. Patrick’s a couple times during my stays in London.

My emphases and comments.
   

St Patrick’s prayer line greets its 50,000th caller

5 March 2010

Eight years ago the historic St Patrick’s church in Soho Square, London, instituted an "SOS prayerline" service to offer prayer and support to those who call on the telephone.

Two weeks ago the prayerline recorded its 50,000th telephone call since it opened on May 13 2003. To mark the occasion Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster came to pray, meet some of the volunteers and offer his blessing for the future of the prayerline.

The telephone sits in a chapel where the Blessed Sacrament is exposed from seven o’clock to 11 every evening, 365 days a year. [Fantastic.] The lay volunteers who answer the calls give their time generously to this simple but effective service.

There have been many occasions over the years when callers have phoned to say "thank you" as a result of prayers answered.

Monica O’Shea works on the St Patrick’s appeal for restoration of the historic Soho church.

She said: "They receive a call and the caller requests a prayer. Then usually the volunteer prays with the caller over the phone." Often callers ring up to express their gratitude and to ask how to donate so that the work can go on.

All the prayers that have ever been received are recorded in a special book. They are kept in perpetuity and callers’ petitions are regularly prayed for.

Fr Alexander Sherbrooke, the parish priest, [...], said: "It is a service that offers only prayer. It does not give counsel or information and simply endeavours to use the telephone as a means of bringing callers closer to the source of mercy.

"At the heart of our parish life is the celebration of Holy Mass and the daily Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament from which flows all the various parish activities and makes the church a spiritual oasis in what is probably the busiest part of one of the busiest cities in the world."

The appeal for the restoration and expansion of St Patrick’s has so far raised £2.7 million and efforts to raise funds continue. In addition to the restoring of the church, a redevelopment is planned to provide a kitchen and cafeteria to give meals for homeless people, a safe house programme for addicts and better rooms for the church fertility advice clinic and the School of Evangelisation.  [Would that such leadership could be implemented so effectively also at the level of dioceses.]

It was the first church in England since the Reformation to be dedicated to St Patrick and was one of the first churches established after the Catholic Relief Acts of 1778 and 1791.

Fr Arthur O’Leary, an Irish Franciscan, directed the consecration of the chapel in 1792. The church houses relics of St Oliver Plunkett, one of the Tyburn Martyrs. During the 20th century Archbishop Fulton Sheen, the television evangelist, regularly celebrated Mass at St Patrick’s, preached from its neo-Renaissance pulpit and stayed in the parish house on visits to Britain. The church has also survived Hitler’s attempt to destroy London: during the Blitz, on the night of November 19 1940, a bomb pierced the roof of the church but failed to explode.

During the restoration works the SOS prayerline will continue daily from 7pm to 11pm. In mid-March, however, the church itself will close for 12 months and Masses have been relocated to various churches in the vicinity.

The weekday 12.45pm Mass will be in the day chapel in St Patrick’s presbytery. The Saturday 6pm Mass will be at the French Protestant church and the Sunday 11am and 5pm Masses at the House of St Barnabas.

The Sunday Chinese Mass [St. Patrick’s is right on the edge of London’s Chinatown.] will be at 2.15pm at Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory in Warwick Street. The Sunday Spanish Mass at 6pm moves to Notre Dame de France in Leicester Place as does the Saturday 4pm Portuguese Mass.

For SOS prayerline telephone 020 7434 9211.

 

Here is a link to St. Patrick’s page.   They have an appeal donation button, which I am sure you will click!

Have any of you set up three monitors?

On the mothership I have 2 identical monitors (a card with two digital heads).

Could I plug in an additional graphics card and run a third monitor?

Remember!  1st Thursday is TODAY… make a plan.

In this year dedicated to priests and prayer for priests, Holy Church has provided lay people with a special plenary indulgence on first Thursdays of each month.

For the faithful, a plenary indulgence can be obtained on the opening and closing days of the Year for Priests, on the 150th anniversary of the death of St. Jean-Marie Vianney, on the first Thursday of the month, or on any other day established by the ordinaries of particular places for the good of the faithful.

To obtain the indulgence the faithful must attend Mass in an oratory or Church and offer prayers to "Jesus Christ, supreme and eternal Priest, for the priests of the Church, or perform any good work to sanctify and mould them to his heart."

The conditions for the faithful for earning a plenary indulgence are to have gone to confession and prayed for the intentions designated by the Pope.

From a reader:

The time for the annual Chrism Mass is nearing and I would like to ask you and your readers a question about the various essences added to the olive oil during the sacred rites. 
 
Inquiry.  I am interested in knowing what mixtures various diocesan liturgists use in preparing the sacred chrism for the Holy Thursday Mass.  Over the years we have used the Holy Rood mixture which is very popular here in America.  I also remember a fine mixture from Steffen Arctander in the distant past which is no longer available.  I am interested in hearing and learning what other products are used in other parts of the world.  What essence is used in the papal Chrism Mass?

 

I have no idea.

Readers?

A reader alerted me to this interesting post at Canterbury Tales:

How do you know which "Vulgate" you have? Open up your Latin Vulgate to Genesis 3:20. How is Eve’s name spelled? This will immediately tell which "Vulgate" you have in your hands:

• If it’s spelled Heva: Clementine Vulgate (1592) – the standard printed Vulgate of the Catholic Church for Scripture and Liturgy until the Nova Vulgata (1979)
  
• If it’s spelled Hava: Stuttgart Vulgate (1969) – a scholarly critical edition of the Vulgate from the German Bible Society, not used in the liturgies of the Catholic Church. This is an academic Vulgate with a critical apparatus – it often includes the Pslater iuxta Hebraeos.
  
• If it’s spelled Eva: Nova Vulgata (1979) – the official Catholic edition of the Vulgate currently used in the liturgies of the Catholic Church (i.e. Missale Romanum 1969 & Liturgia Horarum)
  

This is the only fool-proof way for knowing which edition of the Vulgate that you have in your hands. So grab your Vulgate and check it out. I checked out the New Advent Vulgate at Gen 3:20 and happily discovered that it’s the Clementine Vulgate.

To all the priests out there still… unbelievably still putting sand in holy water fonts during Lent…

KNOCK IT OFF!

And if you go into a church where you see this sort of idiocy… for the love of God, DON’T bless yourself with SAND.






Total FAIL.

• Sand in your holy water stoup
• Dumb liberal idea #3464: Removing Holy Water during Lent 
• Empty holy water fonts during Lent… GRRRRRR!
• QUAERITUR: removing holy water during Lent

You know you are a soldier and pilgrim in a dangerous world, right?   What is Lent for?  Spiritual discipline and war, right?

So why… why… why would these dopey liturgists and priests REMOVE a tool of spiritual warfare precisely duing the season of LENT when we need it the most?? 

Holy water is a sacramental. 

It is not a toy, or something to be abstained from, like chocolate …. which is the stuff of a childish Lent.


This is a response from the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments about this question. Enjoy.

The emphases are mine:

    Prot. N. 569/00/L

    March 14, 2000

    Dear Father:

    This Congregation for Divine Worship has received your letter sent by fax in which you ask whether it is in accord with liturgical law to remove the Holy Water from the fonts for the duration of the season of Lent.

    This Dicastery is able to respond that the removing of Holy Water from the fonts during the season of Lent is not permitted, in particular, for two reasons:

    1. The liturgical legislation in force does not foresee this innovation, which in addition to being praeter legem is contrary to a balanced understanding of the season of Lent, which though truly being a season of penance, is also a season rich in the symbolism of water and baptism, constantly evoked in liturgical texts.

    2. The encouragement of the Church that the faithful avail themselves frequently of the [sic] of her sacraments and sacramentals is to be understood to apply also to the season of Lent. The "fast" and "abstinence" which the faithful embrace in this season does not extend to abstaining from the sacraments or sacramentals of the Church. The practice of the Church has been to empty the Holy Water fonts on the days of the Sacred Triduum in preparation of the blessing of the water at the Easter Vigil, and it corresponds to those days on which the Eucharist is not celebrated (i.e., Good Friday and Holy Saturday).

    Hoping that this resolves the question and with every good wish and kind regard, I am,

    Sincerely yours in Christ,
    [signed]
    Mons. Mario Marini [Later, the Secretary of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, now with God.]
    Undersecretary

 

I suggest little beach chairs made from toothpicks and a drink umbrella would look good in there…. maybe a golf ball? 

Some fast sprouting beans and a little water when no one is looking?  

Have sand in your fonts?  How about some photos!?

I have been getting more and more news of parishes implementing some form of the Office or Liturgy of Hours for the people to sing.

I want to put this out there for informed readers with some knowledge to comment on (I am swamped with work at the moment):

Some friends and I (all laymen who pray the traditional Breviary privately) have discussed the idea of doing Vespers or Compline together some days during the week, since we’re all saying the Office anyway.

However, rather than just doing "group private recitation"...we were wondering about actual Public celebration of the Office (solemn or spoken).

Our pastor has expressed total willingness to let us use the church during those times, since nothing else is going on, and even to alert people in the bulletin, but he himself is not comfortable leading it. (One of the deacons may be, however…)

We’re working on memorizing the "Ordinary" chant parts, especially for Compline.

So, basically, my question is, what ministers are actually required for public celebration of the Office (solemn or otherwise)? Must the celebrant be a priest? Must the celebrant be a cleric? According to the internal rubrics of the Old Rite, must it be a cleric in major orders? Can the roles of hebdomadary and cantor be filled by lay substitutes (as the role of acolyte/altar server can)?

Since celebration of the Divine Office requires no particular sacramental powers, it would be nice if lay volunteers could actually lead it (in cassock-and-surplice like an altar server, at least). But I’m not sure if anything more than spoken "group private recitation" is possible…

From a priest reader:

I’ve been a priest since 1984 and when I was ordained my bishop did not look favorably on the traditional Latin Mass.  Therefore my seminary training at St. Meinrad did not include any mention of the Tridentine Mass, other than the occasional joke about it.  I love to celebrate the Sacrifice of the Mass in English because I know what I am saying, but continue to be drawn to the traditional Latin Mass because of its solemnity, history and beauty.  My question to you is, how hard is it to learn to celebrate the Tridentine Mass?  I earned a "D" in Latin back in college, and have been told by a former Latin teacher to stick with English.  I don’t have a gift for languages.  For the past three years, during Lent in my parish, we have chanted the Pater Noster at Mass, and I still have to have the words in front of me.  I am not good at memorization.   I’ve seen two different workshops available, one offered by the Canons Regular of St. John Cantius and the other by the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter.  Any recommendations?  Comments?

 

Thanks.  I am sure there are many priests who hesitate even to start because they think it must be really hard.

That said, it is sure going to be hard for some priests, but not impossible.

Think about it this way: there were many generations of men who learned how to say Mass who weren’t exactly rocket scientists.  Right?  If they did it, anyone can do it.

It helps a great deal to have strong Latin.  But a priest is to be idoneus, suitable, to say Mass.  He must have the minimum tools for Mass.  He must be able to pronounce the words properly, at the very least.  He doesn’t have to be a Latin expert. 

The workshops mentioned above are very good.  They will be able to steer you toward good tools.

Memorization is important, but not an absolute obstacle: that’s why we have books and altar cards on the altar!

It can be done.

Finally, you would also need to make it clear to any overly zealous trad lay people that if they decide to snipe at you from the pews because they think you didn’t wiggle your pinky finger the right way at the third comma according to the final authority in all things rubrical – their own recollection of how old Msgr. Guido O’Leary did that at St. Ipsidipsy in Tall Tree Circle when they were ten and following their authoritative St. Joseph Daily Missal – then they can just wait… and wait…. and wait … until the good is no longer the enemy of the perfect.

I think, dear Father, the best thing to do is just to start. 

Build it up, brick by brick, and you will find that it isn’t so hard as all that once you get used to it.

That said, I invite PRIESTS to chime in with their comments about learning to say the TLM.

From time to time I have heard… always from liberals… that children shouldn’t be made to memorize when they learn.  They claim that, because children don’t "understand" what they are memorizing, memorizing is counterproductive.

Piffle!

The collapse of Catholic education was accelerated by, inter alia, the move away from memorization.

Thus, I was pleased to pick up from Ten Reasons that the wonderful Baronius Press has reissued The Baltimore Catechism.

Once upon a time I was called in to a hospital where a man in in his last minutes.  He had a hard death.  The old man’s daughter, fallen away, was very bitter, very angry and she unloaded on God by unloading on me. 

I tried to impress on her that he had lived a good life in an earthly way and now his life would continue, but in another and better way.

She was having nothing of it.  She was focused on the bad experience as he was dying.

She eventually fumed "Why did your God do this to him?  Make any of us at all if this is what happens?"

I responded: "Why did God make you?"

She paused.   The light bulb went on.

"God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him for ever in heaven."

Someone had taken the time to drill that into her, and it was still there.

What had been buried for decades, memorized as a child long before she could "understand" what it meant, was there and ready for her in the moment she needed it.

Yes, I am in favor of children memorizing things.

In previous weeks I have been saying that Gregorian chant just isn’t that hard and that it can be introduced in parish worship.  It really must be in cathedrals and major churches, right?

My friend Jeffrey Tucker over at NLM and of Sacred Music has a couple interesting and useful posts.

Sing the Offertory During Lent

Finally, a great tutorial CD for chant

 

The Holy Father has begun his journey from Sant’Anselmo to Santa Sabina for the Ash Wednesday Roman Station Mass.

The Mass to be heard on Vatican Radio and CTV.

I know the liturgical eye-candy folks at NLM will probably be diligent in posting images, so I won’t do too much of that.

Maybe a few.







It is nice to see Archbishop Burke on hand.




The wonderfully preserved Roman Basilica Santa Sabina.



There are Cardinals vested as deacons.

NO CONCELEBRANTS



The Holy Father and sacred ministers are vested in the wonderful "Philip cut" of the Roman vestment, which was in use after the Council of Trent.  This style shows the organic development of vestments from the fuller version, to the more cut-down Roman vestment in use today.

[CORRECTION/UPDATE: Since I wrote this, some people jumped on my in e-mail.  I posted another entry about the Holy Father’s vestment.]

Note the pontifical dalmatic.

A view of an interpretation of the "Benedictine arrangement" of the altar.



Note that the corpus is turned to the celebrant.  Also, note the 7th candle.





The Holy Father with the principle clergy of Rome, his cardinals.



In Italy is the custom to sprinkle ashes on the top of the head rather than to trace a Cross on the forehead.



A better look at a dalmatic.  Note the tassels from the shoulders.



With Card. Arinze.





UPDATE 2145 GMT:

I thought other blogs would pick up more images from this Mass, so I stopped posting them here.

But I do have a few more.

Here are a couple for starters.

Here is the controversial editor of L’Osservatore Romano, Gian Maria Vian next to a cleric who may be known to some of you.

 

The Roman manner of giving the sign of peace.

 

If anyone around the Philadelphia area was wondering where Card. Rigali was today…

UPDATE 0247 GMT:

Okay… a few more.

A glimpse at one of the most beautiful of the ancient Roman basilicas, the stational church for this Mass.  Mussolini stripped out all the baroque stuff and restored it to is pristine form.





My friend Cardinal Arinze, Cardinal Bishop of the Suburbicarian Diocese of Velletri-Segni.

I just caught a glimpse of the former papal MC, H.E., Most Rev. Piero Marini.   Not a clear view, but you can see Msgr. Guido Marini at work on the left.

 

From a priest reader:

I have recently been appointed Parish Priest (Pastor) of what are at present two canonical parishes. (The two parishes will eventually amalgamate to form one new parish with 2 churches).  As the season of Lent approaches my mind is moving forward to the celebration of the Easter Triduum. 
 
Obviously I cannot celebrate the entire Triduum in both parishes.  I am currently thinking of celebrating Holy Thursday and Good Friday in one parish and the Easter vigil in the other and then alternating the following year.  At the Easter Vigil I would bless 2 paschal candles but only light the second at the end of the Mass to carry it out in procession ready for use in the other church the next day.
 
I would be interested to hear your views and that of your readership about my proposed idea.

Any thoughts?

From a reader:

I am wondering what the rule is concerning mixing both wine and water for chalices that will be used for communion under both species.  I have seen some priests only add the water to their own chalice, and other priests who add a drop of water to each individual chalice to be used for communion.  Is there a certain way to do this?

Since I pretty much never am involved with concelebration with multiple chalices, I need to open the floor up to priests who do this sort of thing more often.   On the rare occasion when I have been, I have this to attending deacons, etc.

That said, I think the GIRM only requires that the main chalice (singular), i.e., of the celebrant, must receive a small portion of water in the wine.   Nothing is said about other chalices one way or another. 

It strikes me as appropriate for water to be added to all the chalices at the time of the preparation of the celebrant’s chalice, but I don’t think that is prescribed.

Also, we must not after the consecration pour the Precious Blood from a container into chalices.  Chalices should be prepared ahead of time (cf. Redemptionis Sacramentum). 

I noticed at Bonfire of the Vanities an entry profoundly dopey idea of removing Holy Water from fonts at the entrances of churches during Lent.

I have written about this really dumb idea several times.

Empty holy water fonts during Lent… GRRRRRR!

Since Lent is in view, let us get you good folks armed against such dopiness if it is planned for your parishes.

Here is what I wrote in another entry: QUAERITUR: removing holy water during Lent

Q:  Our Sunday bulletin states that Holy Water will be removed from Ash Wednesday on during Lent to remind us that we are in a desert. What is the latest rule for removing Holy Water? It used to be done on Good Friday.

Good question! Thanks for asking this. No doubt thousands.. maybe millions of people will be subjected to all kinds of rubbish during Lent. One day I should relate the stupid things we had to endure in seminary about this very thing of sand in the holy water stoup.

Any way… This is a response from the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments about this question. Enjoy.

The emphases are mine:

    Prot. N. 569/00/L

    March 14, 2000

    Dear Father:

    This Congregation for Divine Worship has received your letter sent by fax in which you ask whether it is in accord with liturgical law to remove the Holy Water from the fonts for the duration of the season of Lent.

    This Dicastery is able to respond that the removing of Holy Water from the fonts during the season of Lent is not permitted, in particular, for two reasons:

    1. The liturgical legislation in force does not foresee this innovation, which in addition to being praeter legem is contrary to a balanced understanding of the season of Lent, which though truly being a season of penance, is also a season rich in the symbolism of water and baptism, constantly evoked in liturgical texts.

    2. The encouragement of the Church that the faithful avail themselves frequently of the [sic] of her sacraments and sacramentals is to be understood to apply also to the season of Lent. The "fast" and "abstinence" which the faithful embrace in this season does not extend to abstaining from the sacraments or sacramentals of the Church. The practice of the Church has been to empty the Holy Water fonts on the days of the Sacred Triduum in preparation of the blessing of the water at the Easter Vigil, and it corresponds to those days on which the Eucharist is not celebrated (i.e., Good Friday and Holy Saturday).

    Hoping that this resolves the question and with every good wish and kind regard, I am,

    Sincerely yours in Christ,
    [signed]
    Mons. Mario Marini [Later the Secretary of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, now sadly deceased.]
    Undersecretary

One of these days I will tell you about the hijinx over holy water in Lent we had in seminary, the infamous Saint Paul Seminary, in Minnesota, where I did a couple years of hard time. But that’s another story.

About the holy water thing. 

Holy water is a sacramental. 

We get the powerful theology of its use in the older ritual in the prayers for exorcism of the water and salt used and then the blessing itself.  I wrote about this in an article for the WDTPRS series and it is on this blog. 

The rite of blessing holy water, in the older ritual, is powerful stuff.  It sounds odd, nearly foreign to our modern ears, especially after over 30 years of being force fed ICEL pabulum.

Holy Water is a power weapon of the spiritual life against the attacks of the devil. 

You do believe in the existence of the Enemy, ... right? 

You know you are a soldier and pilgrim in a dangerous world, ... right? 

So why… why… why would these liturgists and priests REMOVE a tool of spiritual warfare precisely during the season of LENT when we need it the most?? 

Holy water is a sacramental. 

It is for our benefit. 

It is not a toy, or something to be abstained from, like chocolate or television.