Pope Benedict XVI on Corpus Christi processions and a rant from Fr. Z

In many places the Feast of Corpus Christi gets an “external celebration” on Sunday.  It is wonderful to see the multiplication of Eucharistic processions especially with the growth of the Traditional Latin Mass.  TLM began, processions generally followed.

In 2008 Pope Benedict taught about processions, a message we could all use today.  The full text is HERE.

“The Corpus Christi procession teaches us that the Eucharist seeks to free us from every kind of despondency and discouragement, wants to raise us, so that we can set out on the journey with the strength God gives us through Jesus Christ … Each one can find his own way if he encounters the One who is the Word and the Bread of Life and lets himself be guided by his friendly presence. Without the God-with-us, the God who is close, how can we stand up to the pilgrimage through life, either on our own or as society and the family of peoples? The Eucharist is the Sacrament of the God who does not leave us alone on the journey but stays at our side and shows us the way. Indeed, it is not enough to move onwards, one must also see where one is going! “Progress” does not suffice, if there are no criteria as reference points. On the contrary, if one loses the way one risks coming to a precipice, or at any rate more rapidly distancing oneself from the goal. God created us free but he did not leave us alone: he made himself the “way” and came to walk together with us so that in our freedom we should also have the criterion we need to discern the right way and to take it.”

This is a key point for our times in the Church right now….

“[I]f one loses the way one risks coming to a precipice, or at any rate more rapidly distancing oneself from the goal.”

We’ve gone down the wrong road for too long and we are paying the price.

As in geometry, the farther two rays extend from a point, the farther apart they get.  As in making a journey, if you want to get from, say, Chicago to Texas and, after driving for a long time, discover you are at the Canadian border, you would do well to turn around, retrace your MISTAKE, and start again on the right road.  As a matter of fact, you would be stupid to keep driving north.

Bashing Tradition to promote the Second Vatican Council is like driving north from Chicago in order to get to Texas.  More on this at the end.

No new initiative we undertake in the Church is going to succeed unless we revitalize our sacred liturgical worship and seek to fulfill the virtue of Religion, to give God what is His due.  Everything we do must flow from the Eucharist – by which we must understand both the sacred Eucharistic species and also its celebration which is Holy Mass.  Everything we do must then be brought back to the Eucharist.

Among the things that we can do relatively quickly are reinstitute many of our devotional practices: recitation of the Rosary (perhaps with a priest in the confessional), exposition and benediction (perhaps with a priest in the confessional), novenas on weeknights (perhaps with a priest in the confessional), processions, litanies, vespers, Forty Hours Devotion.

PROCESSIONS!  More processions!  Less chatter!

FORTY HOURS!   If there was ever a time in the life of the Church when we needed to recover the practice of FORTY HOURS DEVOTION… not pretend Forty Hours… not dumbed-down Forty Hours… not updated (see previous) Forty Hours… but REAL Forty Hours, it’s now.

Undiluted… unblended… undaunted… unmodified… unapologetic… traditional Forty Hours Devotion.

Thus endeth the rant.

We are our rites.

God, Our Father, with Your mighty steering hand guide Your priests and bishops out of the fog of worldly notions and onto a course of true renewal.

God, Our Savior and High Priest, chart onto the minds and hearts of Your sons a destination of a traditional priestly identity for our turbulent context here and now.

God, Holy Spirit, fill Your sons with zeal and with the courage to persevere when stormy resistance will rise from the agents of the Enemy.

Mary, Queen of the Clergy, put your protecting mantle over your sons who will be persecuted by their brethren and superiors when they implement traditional worship.

St. Joseph, Protector of Christ, Protector of the Church, guide the efforts of your sons to build up the Temple of God for worthy worship according to the virtue of Religion.

Holy Angels, guard us from evil and prompt us to do good.

 

ACTION ITEM! Be a “Custos Traditionis”! Join an association of prayer for the reversal of “Traditionis custodes”.

Also, as mentioned above.

This book pertains to the attempt by some to build up the Council by bashing tradition.

Illusions of Reform – Responses to Cavadini, Healy, and Weinandy
IN DEFENSE OF THE TRADITIONAL MASS AND THE FAITHFUL WHO ATTEND IT

US HERE – UK HERE

Three Catholic writers, Dr. John Cavadini, Dr. Mary Healy and Fr. Thomas Weinandy (CHW) signed a series of articles published by Notre Dame’s Church Life Journal (I know.. never heard of it…) attacking the TLM (and people who attend it) while also painting a picture of post-Conciliar “reforms” that was somewhat overly optimistic. “Cui bono?”  They seemed not really to have understood what they were writing about.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

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

  1. Kathleen10 says:

    Amen, to your prayer Fr Z!

  2. James Straight says:

    The Most Reverend Earl K. Fernandes, ordained and installed as the Bishop of Columbus just 1 year and 8 days ago is currently in the middle of leading 11 Eucharistic Processions in the Diocese in 10 days, from June 2nd through the 11th. (That is just the ones the Bishop is taking part in.)

    Just this evening at St. Leo Oratory, the parish of the Institute of Christ the King in the diocese of Columbus, Msgr. Gilles Wach, Founder and Prior General of the Institute celebrated a Solemn High Mass, with Bishop Fernandes assisting at the Throne. (In just a year this is already the 2nd time he has assisted at the Throne.) It looked like more than a dozen priests of the Institute and the diocese were in choir. Then the Bishop lead today’s Eucharistic Procession through the neighborhood.

    One of the priests who was in choir today is a Dominican who is the pastor of a diocesan parish, St. Patrick, that has for decades been the go to place for the Novus Ordo done right in the diocese. (Incense, Mass Propers, good hymns, some Latin, 1 Sunday Mass is ad orientem, etc.) Next Friday, on the Feast of the Sacred Heart, they will be having a Sung Mass in the Dominican Rite, which they occasionally do. They will be having their own Eucharistic Procession this Sunday while the Bishop is leading one at the Cathedral and later one at another parish.

    We may have to borrow a title you coined for another bishop. Bishop Fernandes is definitely an Extraordinary Ordinary.

    Sometimes things look so bad in the Church. But other times it is overwhelming how good we have it.

  3. Cornelius says:

    I’m reading “Illusions of Reform” now and the quality of the attacks on the TLM (and TLM attendees, and the pre-VII Church) by Fr. Weinandy and company is appalling – their “arguments”, so full of errors of fact and uncharitable judgments of others, really amount to nothing more than propaganda intended to bolster the narrative coming out of Rome these days.

  4. JonPatrick says:

    The new pastor at our parish is favorable to eucharistic adoration and now has it every First Friday and Saturday at one of the parish churches, with him sitting in the confessional. We are also having a Corpus Christi eucharistic procession this Sunday, the first that I remember in a long time here.

  5. JGavin says:

    Yesterday went to the Oratory of St Cyril and Methodius for Corpus Christi.
    It was sublime . In addition to the Mass and procession , a recently ordained priest bestowed his blessing on the attendees individually. I am 63 yo, and that was a first.
    I also needed to go to confession and went, prior to the Mass, to Canon Altiere.( I think confession is offered before Mass on Sundays.) This was splendid. the whole experience was uplifting, invigorating. Two Sacraments, same day. What is striking is our sins are grave , our remittance is sparse. I confess, I am absolved, the debt is paid and what is asked of me? A few prayers. A minute or two spent in prayer. The sense of release, amazing. Thank You , Father Z, for your consistent and constant admonitions about confession. A hat tip to Father Victor Martin , who in his Lenten sermons said ( best quote) the lines for communion are long but the lines for confession are short. I did not put that in quotes since I do not remember the exact order. It was one of the best sermons he ever gave. However experiencing the ancient Liturgy and our Traditional practices reinstructs us in and reinforces the Faith.
    Another interesting point, there were I think, six priests on the Altar. The Celebrant who was from Stamford, the deacon, subdeacon , two in choro and one functioning as an acolyte (?). The last being, I thought an interested young man , but , as I was leaving, another attendee asked if he was a seminarian and he said ,no, he was a priest and back to officiate at the wedding of his younger sister.
    All, save the celebrant , were less than 50. Maybe less than 40. This gives me hope. I would strongly suggest anyone in the Bridgeport area to visit the ICKSP oratory. Also , the preface of Christmas is the proper preface for this feast.

  6. Andrew says:

    Our No priest has been quite good. Sadly he will not say the Latin Mass but he did introduce this year, 40 hours exposition of the Blessed Sacrament in the lead up to Pentecost. He asked for at least two people for each hour, in all around 140 people attended. He always makes himself available for hearing confessions, even at short notice. And during the covid lock down, this was the only church where we could continue to attend Mass in the church car park.

    Sadly there will be no Corpus Christi procession this year but I’m going to work on making suggestions to bring some more Catholic tradition to this parish.

  7. TonyO says:

    I think our current not-pastor (parish administrator) would seemingly rather have his arm cut off than do a Eucharistic Procession. He actively repudiates such devotions. I am not sure what he makes of the new UCSSB’s pursuit of Eucharistic revival, but I think he would strive mightily to avoid taking any overt actions at all for devotions outside of actual mass. Does it say anything, that he appears to be over 60?

  8. Suburbanbanshee says:

    The priest who runs the local university chapel will be away this year for Corpus Christi, but he said that he’s going to try to have the procession happen anyway. We already had a Eucharistic procession earlier this year, all over (a secular) campus, on a weekday… but hey, I hope we can do this one too!

    The lay guys who are here for the summer are pretty enthusiastic, and most of the priests that our priest gets as substitutes are also pretty enthusiastic. So we’ll see.

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