Fr. Z's Blog | Formerly entitled: "What Does The Prayer Really Say?" – Clear, straight commentary on Catholic issues, liturgy and life by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf o{]:¬)

Your Assumption Mass Reports

Posted on 16 August 2015 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Do you have photos and reports about Extraordinary Form Masses for the Feast of the Assumption?

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
17 Comments

D. Fort Worth: New Extraordinary Form parish erected!

Posted on 16 August 2015 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

This is from a reader…

Fr Z, thanks for all you do. You are one of the top 3 reads every day for me.

Bishop Olson recently erected a personal parish for those who ‘remain attached to the celebration’ of the EF. I was not aware of this. HERE [The parish was formally erected on 1 August.]

I attend St Elizabeth Ann Seton in Keller and I think you would
heartily approve of Monsignor Hart, with his extensive homilies on contraception, abortion, gay ‘marriage’ etc. First parish I’ve attended that uses graduals and introits and chant, though it is Novus Ordo. Recommended if you ever come down, though right now we’re in the blast furnace days.

A few years ago I attended the EF Mass at St Mary of the Assumption with my father on my birthday (as my gift), who remembered it fondly from his childhood. I have no memory of it from my youth.

Having read your blog, I knew to Say the Black and Do the Red.

Thanks!

You are welcome!

I would like to visit someday soon.

And I hope the people there are deeply grateful and that they will pray for their bishop incessantly, and that they will show their gratitude to him and to God by constant spiritual and corporal works of mercy. Let them win people to membership in their new parish through the beauty of sacred worship, clear doctrine and exemplary charity.

The New Evangelization advances a step.

¡Hagan lío!

That said, there are a couple phrases in Bp. Olson’s decree which struck me as unusual.

First, speaking of those who “remain attached” to the traditional forms is not very accurate. Many of those who attend are young and many new people are attending the Extraordinary Form. Of course once they learn of it they “remain”.

Also, the phrase about people who “bind themselves exclusively” to the Extraordinary Form. This leaves me scratching my head, because many people who might want to belong to such a parish and who prefer the Extraordinary Form also attend reverently celebrated Masses according to the Novus Ordo. They would also happily attend the Divine Liturgy of Easter Catholics – Ukrainian, Maronite, Ruthenian….

So, I hope that the Extraordinary Form spreads through the whole region.

Posted in ¡Hagan lío!, Fr. Z KUDOS, Hard-Identity Catholicism, New Evangelization, SUMMORUM PONTIFICUM | Tagged Bp. Michael Olson, D. Fort Worth, Extraordinary Form, parish
13 Comments

LCWR Great Swirly Meeting concludes. Fr. Z looks back at a look foward!

Posted on 16 August 2015 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

In a piece from Fishwrap, aka National Sodomitic Reporter, about the closing the LCWR annual confab in view of the Great Swirly, we find this:

If critics thought the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s doctrinal Massessment and mandated changes were going to rein in U.S. women religious and get them to focus more on fighting same-sex marriage and abortion and less on serving those at the margins, they were wrong. [In other words, they are going to go as if nothing had happened with the CDF?]

Not only have sisters simply continued to do what they do, but when presented with an open microphone Thursday morning, several called for expanding that work in a way that may be the opposite of what critics were hoping for.

It happened during what was supposed to be an open discussion of the morning’s keynote address by Divine Word Fr. Stephen Bevans. The plan: Tables drawn randomly would send a representative to the mic to share what their table had talked about while processing Bevans’ presentation.

But one sister approached the microphone, saying that her table hadn’t been called but they wanted their voices heard anyway.

“We think it’s time we stood for the gay and lesbian community. These people are suffering profoundly,” she told the group. “They are coming to our churches, our programs — when are we going to stand for them?”

Another sister said her table had also sent her to the microphone despite not being called on.

She said that all of what LCWR has learned about contemplative dialogue in the last three years should be put to use in not only ministering to the gay and lesbian community, but in fighting discrimination. It may be easier to stand up to the government than it is to stand up to church leaders, she said, but that does not mean sisters can stand by and allow discrimination to continue.

My response…

I am hereunder reposting something I posted (only) 3 years ago…

The 2020 annual LCWR Assembly

I picked this up from a future edition of the National catholic Reporter.

Breaking down barriers, affirming freedom
by Jamie O’Brien

12 August 2020

HONOLULU (NcR) The 2020 annual national assembly of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious is underway in Honolulu, under the swaying palms and by the sparkling sandy beaches. Once again the gathered sisters have met to affirm each other in their respective callings.

Beth Mackee, LCWR co-mentor, introduced this year’s national assembly speaker Dyna Moore. Moore, the latest in a series of transgendered Daughters of Charity to profess vows, told the assembly in her keynote speech how liberating it was for her now to be a woman.

However, Moore directed the majority of her remarks to the Assembly’s theme, “Age: The Final Frontier“.

Picking up on the assembly’s strong anticipation of President Obama’s fourth term, Moore reminded the group that “much still needs to be done to carry forward the liberation of women from all forms of oppression, especially sexual oppression”.

Congratulating the LCWR for its defeat a decade earlier of the CDF’s attempted 5-year takeover, Moore recalled the women religious who in the meantime “heroically fought the male hierarchy’s strong support of legislation banning polygamous lesbian marriages”.

Yet Moore challenged the assembled sisters to intensify their efforts in support of a national law aimed at lowering the age of sexual consent to 11.

In her talk, Moore, a professor of linguistics at Notre Dame, surveyed the negative history surrounding language concerning women’s rights.

Moore claimed that “terms such as abortion and prostitution and polygamy, and now pedophilia, have been used by men to stigmatize women in their search for sexual liberty”.

After fighting for the right of women of all ages to have abortions without parental knowledge or consent, Moore suggested that women religious should “lead the battle for the relational freedom of females of every age”.

The assembly rose in a standing ovation when Moore declared that “the human right of girls to choose sexual partners regardless of age represents the final frontier of women’s sexual and reproductive freedom”.

While Moore was speaking, members of the Survivors’ Network of those Abused by Nuns, SNAN (formerly known as SNAP) protested outside Honolulu’s most expensive hotel, where the Assembly was held.

“They are compromising the future repressed memories of countless children,” said a SNAN spokesperson.

Prophetic.

One of the commentators under that post offered these as possible future workshops:

Age: The Final Frontier

LCWR Workshops:

Dropping the R?
Looking ahead: What about the W?
Education: Reaching the young remaining in innocence.
Recognizing the hormonal effects of contraception begun at 12 in public schools by sight.
Cloning: Extending the frontier.
Homogenizing gender: makeovers, fashion sense, and hair styling.
Retreat planning.
Retreats for kids .
Latest developments in motorized rollaters, wheelchairs, and vans.
Maintaining community life in condocare villages.
Music: make your own.
Water ballet and hula dancing.
Planning and ordering buffets: Baking and storing sweets.
Campaigning and coffee hours.
Social networking and liberation. b-y-o-tech.

Posted in Linking Back, Women Religious | Tagged LCWR, magisterium of nuns
8 Comments

“O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell….”

Posted on 16 August 2015 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I was alerted to this tweet by His Eminence Oscar Card. Rodriguez Maradiaga, Archbishop of Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Caveat: One has to wonder if this is truly His Eminence’s account or if it is someone else’s.

A screenshot of the tweet.

Unless, of course, it doesn’t.

Posted in Four Last Things | Tagged apokatastasis, Card. Rodriguez Maradiaga, Four Last Things, hell, Universalism
12 Comments

D. Madison: Pontifical Mass at the Faldstool for Assumption of the Blessed Virgin

Posted on 16 August 2015 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From yesterday’s Pontifical Mass at the Faldstool for the Feast of the Assumption at St. Mary’s in Pine Bluff, WI. His Excellency Most Rev. Robert C. Morlino (aka the Extraordinary Ordinary) was the celebrant. Most the seminarians of the diocese were there, either in liturgical roles in the sanctuary or in choro, some with their new birettas from the biretta project!

Confessions were heard during Mass.

People were asked to pray in a special way for an increase in vocations to the Holy Priesthood.

More…

The bishop is incensed.

The Subdeacon, fulfilled by Msgr. Bartylla, Vicar General, heads to his place for the singing of the first reading.

Note that the Deacon and Assistant priest are in the act of putting on their birettas.

We had a traditional blessing of flowers and herbs, fruits and vegetables before Mass. Flowers went to the main altar, St. Joseph and, of course, the Blessed Virgin. Alas, people are so used to seeing flowers on the altar itself, they put the flowers on the mensa of the side altars rather than the gradins.

We have good congregational sung responses. The choir did a fine job with De Victoria’s Missa Quarti Toni, Gregorian chant, and motets.

It was a beautiful Mass in honor of Our Blessed Mother, who, as daughter of her Son, always redirects our gaze back to the Lord, at whose side she is Queen of Heaven, Queen of the Clergy.

UPDATE:

More photos are coming.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Just Too Cool, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, SUMMORUM PONTIFICUM | Tagged Assumption, Bp. Morlino, D. Madison, faldstool, Feast of the Assumption, Pontifical Mass, Pontifical Mass at the Faldstool
17 Comments

ASK FATHER: “Blood” omitted from the consecration

Posted on 14 August 2015 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a reader…

QUAERITUR:

Recently at my parish, we had a retired priest say masses while our priest was away. In addition to improvising prayers during the Collect, he changed the wording of the Words of Institution. During the consecration of wine, he said something along the lines of, “This is the cup of the new covenant,” without ever mentioning the word “blood.” Did this invalidate the consecration? Furthermore, if it did, am I under moral obligation as a layperson to warn fellow parishioners that what they hope to receive as the Precious Blood of the Lord remains unconsecrated wine?

There are several issues here.

First, when I see descriptions including “along the lines of” instead of exact wording, my antennas wave.

However, you say that he did NOT say the word “Blood”.

It is possible to screw up or change some elements of the form and still validly consecrate, but if you don’t include the word “Blood” at all… then I say that isn’t a valid consecration. The Precious Blood was not consecrated.

That means that Mass was not celebrated.

If people receive a Host for Communion, they received the Eucharist. If they drank from an offered chalice… nope.

There are ramifications for the intention and the stipend for the Mass.

What to do about this?

Doing this once might be a mistake. Doing this regularly is another matter entirely. That would mean he means to do it.

I suppose the first thing would be to bring it up to a priest a the parish. If there isn’t one at all, ask the priest who is doing this about it. If he blows you off and keeps doing it, then he should be reported IMMEDIATELY to the local bishop and/or the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. This is grave matter.

Fathers… STICK TO THE BOOK!

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, ASK FATHER Question Box, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000 | Tagged Precious Blood, words of consecration
33 Comments

The Flag, Pope Francis, Cuba and Religious Freedom

Posted on 14 August 2015 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Look… Pope’s meet with all sorts of people. That said, I direct your attention to a piece at USA Today by Nichols Hahn of Real Clear Religion. My emphases.

Havana’s U.S. flag no victory for pope: Column

Secretary of State John Kerry’s historic flag-raising at the U.S. Embassy in Havana on Friday culminates a diplomatic accomplishment for the Obama administration and Pope Francis. But the ceremony has some irony, not all that unlike President George W. Bush’s 2003 “Mission Accomplished” speech.

The island’s dissidents weren’t invited, and the pontiff who helped usher in the new relations might have been expected to side with Cuba’s persecuted faithful. But when asked about Cuba’s spotty record, Francis demurred. “I would say that in many countries of the world, human rights are not respected,” he said during a July in-flight news conference. “Religious liberty is not a reality in the entire world; there are many countries that do not allow it.”

The pope’s answer is in keeping with his May meeting in Rome with Cuban President Raul Castro. The Vatican reported that the meeting was “very friendly.” But not even a prophet could have foreseen what came next.

“If the pope continues this way, I will go back to praying and go back to the church,” the 84-year-old communist leader told an amazed gaggle of reporters after meeting in private with the pontiff for nearly an hour. “I’m not joking,” Castro assured them.

But some in Castro’s Cuba aren’t buying it. “It is a mockery for Raul Castro tell the pope that he may return to the bosom of the church and pray again,” Berta Soler told Spanish radio. Soler is the leader of the Ladies in White, a Catholic opposition movement made up of relatives of jailed human rights activists who attend Mass and silently take to the streets while wearing white.

Soler’s skepticism might have something to do with Castro’s security goons, who continue to harass and detain the Ladies and other dissidents. Just days before Kerry’s visit, the government rounded up about 50 of Soler’s Ladies. The detentions are only “further proof of the Cuban government’s intolerance towards people who think differently,” Soler told the PanAm Post.

If a recent Univision Noticias survey of Cubans is any indication, Soler is not alone in that assessment: 75% of respondents said that when it comes to politics, they “have to be careful about what to say” in public. [Rather like what the present environment in some sectors of the Church is becoming… again.] The Obama administration and Pope Francis hoped a thawing would open the political system, but more than half of Cubans polled believe politics will remain the same. Still more don’t think the Cuban government will allow other political parties to exist after a normalization of relations.

But Castro’s crackdown seems to be more about religious freedom than the ballot box. “Many times, we haven’t been able to get to church,” Soler told the National Review at this year’s Oslo Freedom Forum. “The few who actually do make it to church have been detained for over five hours. They have been beaten.” This might be why Soler is more than a little frustrated with her spiritual shepherd. “The European Union, the USA, Pope Francis — they have turned their backs on us,” she said.

[…]

Read the rest there.

Posted in Religious Liberty, The Coming Storm, The Drill, The future and our choices, The Olympian Middle | Tagged Cuba, Ladies in White, Pope Francis, religious freedom, religious liberty
13 Comments

Update on the LCWR Assembly of the Great Swirly

Posted on 14 August 2015 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

We need an update on the Assembly of the Great Swirly, the LCWR annual confab at the Hyatt Regency in Houston.

They had a speech by one Fr. Stephen Bevans, SVD. No, he’s a priest. He couldn’t be bothered to dress like one to talk to the sisters, however. He’s from CTU, after all.

These neck-tie priests… how pretentious! If you are not going to wear a Roman collar, why wear a tie? Why not just wear a polo shirt? Because you are… what… a professional? You are… German?

He has the Great Swirly before him but he has Katsushika Hokusai’s Wave behind him. It’s watery there.

What is it with nuns and water?

Isn’t water a 60’s and 70’s thing?

No, really… what’s this all about?

Anyway, the LCWR site says the assembly is reflecting on a theme:

The assembly theme, “Springs of the Great Deep Burst Forth: Meeting the Thirsts of the World,” comes in part from the account of the creation of the world in Genesis 7:11. As the Israelites named the enormous reservoir of water that they believed was beneath the surface of the earth “The Great Deep,” so we use the same name for the reservoir of wisdom that we believe can be accessed through living a life of contemplation.

Genesis 7….? They want to access… the “great deep” which they say is “wisdom” (which is really thinly-disguised Gnostic “Sophia“. Some Christian Gnostics (there was zillions of variations) juxtaposed antithetical figures Christ and Sophia, male and female. She was, for them – and perhaps for the sisters – the world-soul, spiritual principle which sank down into the primal chaos. You know.. the usual Gnostic B as in B, S as in S.

What is Genesis 7 about? Noah goes into the ark with his family and the flood overflows the earth and kills everything. A distinction is also made between clean and unclean animals. Here is some of the chapter in the Douay version:

[9] Two and two went in to Noe into the ark, male and female, as the Lord had commanded Noe. [How sexist of the Lord to make discriminate against the other sexed and transexual animals which He left outside to die!] [10] And after the seven days were passed, the waters of the flood overflowed the earth.

[11] In the six hundredth year of the life of Noe, in the second month, in the seventeenth day of the month, all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the flood gates of heaven were opened: [12] And the rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights. [13] In the selfsame day Noe, and Sem, and Cham, and Japheth his sons: his wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, went into the ark: [14] They and every beast according to its kind, and all the cattle in their kind, and every thing that moveth upon the earth according to its kind, and every fowl according to its kind, all birds, and all that fly, [15] Went in to Noe into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein was the breath of life.

[16] And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the Lord shut him in on the outside. [17] And the flood was forty days upon the earth, and the waters increased, and lifted up the ark on high from the earth. [18] For they overflowed exceedingly: and filled all on the face of the earth: and the ark was carried upon the waters. [19] And the waters prevailed beyond measure upon the earth: and all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered. [20] The water was fifteen cubits higher than the mountains which it covered.

[21] And all flesh was destroyed that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beasts, and of all creeping things that creep upon the earth: and all men. [22] And all things wherein there is the breath of life on the earth, died. [23] And he destroyed all the substance that was upon the earth, from man even to beast, and the creeping things and fowls of the air: and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noe only remained, and they that were with him in the ark. [24] And the waters prevailed upon the earth a hundred and fifty days.

This is an odd thing to celebrate and contemplate… the forces of nature through which God destroyed every living thing but Noah and his own.

Back to Bevans… what does Fishwrap think important? A sample with my emphases:

Divine Word Fr. Stephen Bevans told approximately 800 members of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious gathered here for the group’s annual assembly that only by focusing on the Holy Spirit can they quench the thirsts of the world.

To live God’s mission, Bevans said, the church must live in what he called “prophetic dialogue” — “an openness in contemplation to discover the thirsts of the world and a determination in humility to work for the slaking of those thirsts.”

Bevans said the world longs for the water of integrity, the wine of hope, the nectar of justice and the elixir of beauty, adding that the spirit’s awakening of those longings requires us to try to meet them.

He talked of those leading the charge in integrity, such as Malala Yousafzai[young female Pakistani activist] and Nelson Mandela, and hailed as prophets Immaculate Heart of Mary Sr. Sandra Schneiders [who on occasions writes as if she believes that Christ had a human intellect that wasn’t illuminated by His divine nature. Rather, we Christians believe that Christ’s human intellect was never not illuminated by His divine intellect.] and Benedictine Sr. Joan Chittister. [who suggested not long ago – when the CDF was watching – that the LCWR be disbanded]

The thirst for justice, [and apparently thirst for global death by flood] he said, is why people are part of Call to Action or protest annually at the School of Americas, now the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, in Fort Benning, Georgia. And the thirst for beauty is great because of the violence in the world, he said.

One of the sisters was moved to say of Bevan’s reflections:

“We can’t meet [the world’s needs] personally, but we can in spirit,” she said. “If we keep operating out of that spirit and we share that spirit, then there can be that hope.”

That sounds like a sin against the Holy Spirit.

Another said:

“We can’t meet [the world’s needs] personally, but we can in spirit,” she said. “If we keep operating out of that spirit and we share that spirit, then there can be that hope.”

Hope for what? More water? Maybe she’s from California.

This reminds me of what Peter Kreeft has his demonic character suggest as a way to distract people from true godliness. The demon wants their “patients” to be concerned about “poverty”, in the abstract, rather than actual poor people.

In any event, they are quenching and slaking there in Houston these days, as they ponder the life-annihilating global-killer Flood of Genesis 7.

QUESTION:

Did the nuns choose this Genesis 7 Flood theme because of the new movie about Noah?

Coincidence?

Posted in Liberals, Women Religious, You must be joking! | Tagged LCWR, Leadership Conference of Women Religious
35 Comments

BIRETTA PROJECT FOLLOWUP: You can still participate!

Posted on 13 August 2015 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I received this from John at Leaflet Missal in St. Paul:

Hello Fr. Z,

I have tremendous news! The goal of 20 birettas for the Diocese of Madison has been reached and I express my gratitude to all who have so generously contributed. Thank you, thank you!

Having said that, I have received quite a few phone calls from donors expressing interest in advancing the cause for any seminarian or priest who may be in need a biretta. Not a bad idea, right?

So…I propose that we forge ahead in this endeavor.

Seminarians and priests may call me or e-mail me with their hat size and contact info, and I will provide them with a biretta as donations arrive.

Maybe we can have a small section on the web page about the project with running total?

Mr. John Hastreiter

Phone: 651-209-1951
E-mail: jhastreiter@leafletonline.com

Sure, we can keep track.

Okay, everyone. John is ready to do all the book keeping.

Your job is to buy birettas.

Seminarians and priests? Need a biretta and can’t afford one?

Now’s your chance.

Outrage liberals! Edify the faithful! Build identity! Foster decorum!

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, ACTION ITEM!, Hard-Identity Catholicism, Just Too Cool, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, Priests and Priesthood, Seminarians and Seminaries | Tagged biretta, birettas, Leaflet Missal Company
2 Comments

WDTPRS – 13th Sunday after Pentecost: “E ‘n la sua volontade è nostra pace!”

Posted on 13 August 2015 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Today’s prayer survived the redactors to live on in the Novus Ordo as the Collect for the 30th Sunday of Ordinary Time. It is an ancient prayer, found in the Veronese and the Gelasian Sacramentary.

COLLECT (1962MR):

Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, da nobis fidei, spei et caritatis augmentum: et, ut mereamur assequi quod promittis, fac nos amare quod praecipis.

The verb assequor, according to our splendid tool the Lewis & Short Dictionary, means mainly “to follow one in order to come up to him, to pursue”, and by extension “to gain, obtain, procure.”

Have you noticed that sometimes in our prayers we call God aeterne or also sempiterne? Our French dictionary of liturgical Latin Blaise/Dumas says aeternus and sempiternus are both “eternal”, that is, not “temporal” or that which endures only for a time. But in the philosophy and theology (indistinguishable from each other in late antiquity) of the era when today’s prayer was composed, much thought was dedicated to figuring out time and God’s relationship to time. If we want to get at what our ancient prayer really says, we must hear “eternity” and “sempiternity” as different concepts. First, eternity can be thought of as completely independent of time, entirely outside of time. Another kind of eternity has no beginning or end. Boethius (+c.526) gave shape to the thought of St. Augustine (+430) on time and distinguished eternity as the simple simultaneous possession of life by God. It is not a drawn out process. It is a simple possession. Sempiternity, a term occurring in ancient Latin but only as a synonym of eternity, was famously redefined by Boethius as the “eternal now”. It is “everlastingness”.

Indulge me, dear readers. Occasionally one of you will write saying that I lose you in what seem to be nitpicking digressions. Let me be clear: I’m not trying to be a psilological doryphore. I drill into these texts to help people understand, after decades of banal prayers purged of content and color, that our language of liturgical prayer is rooted deeply in ancient pondering, man’s great questions before God and the cosmos. The words themselves are treasures, carefully weighed and finely polished, handed down with centuries of love by our forefathers… to you. Every syllable belongs to you. Each exquisite term is your millennial patrimony.

LITERAL TRANSLATION:

Almighty everlasting God, grant us an increase of faith, hope and charity, and cause us to love what You command so that we may merit to obtain what You promise.

Let’s have a glance at what I believe is the most current draft of the new English translation of the same prayer intended for the 30th Sunday of Ordinary Time:

CURRENT ICEL (2011 – 30th Sunday):

Almighty ever-living God, increase our faith, hope and charity, and make us love what you command, so that we may merit what you promise.

Pretty close to the WDTPRS version. I think we will be pleased with the new translation, provided that the foot-dragging ceases and the project is completed. As a contrast, here is the lame-duck version from the old incarnation of…

OBSOLETE ICEL (1973 of the 1970MR):

Almighty and ever-living God, strengthen our faith, hope, and love. May we do with loving hearts what you ask of us and come to share the life you promise.

See how the lame-duck ICELese strips the prayer of the concepts “command”, reduced to a request, and “merit”, dissolved into a vague sharing?

In what the prayer really says, we ask God the Father for an increase of the theological virtues faith, hope and charity, given at baptism, with a view to what we merit after doing His will. Let’s get out the theological drill and look into these concepts.

The German writer Josef Pieper (+1997) describes our supernatural life as having three main currents. First, we have some knowledge of God surpassing what we can know about Him naturally because He reveals it to us (faith). Second, we live by the patient expectation that what we learn and believe God promises will indeed be fulfilled (hope). Third, there is an affirmative response of love of the God whom we come to know by faith as well as love for neighbor (charity).

Natural human virtues are acquired through education and discipline. The three theological virtues faith, hope and charity are given to us by God. They perfect and elevate everything virtuous which man can do naturally. Considered one at a time, charity is the greatest of the three, followed by hope and then faith. But they are all three intimately woven together. St. Augustine (+430) says, “There is no love without hope, no hope without love, and neither love nor hope without faith” (enchir 8). The goal of the virtuous life, as we read in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (1803), is to become like God. Living the theological virtues concretely reveals in us the image of God and the grace He gives to His adopted children. “The practice of all the virtues is animated and inspired by charity, which ‘binds everything together in perfect harmony’” (CCC 1827). Virtues must be gained, naturally on our own or supernaturally with God’s help. They can also be lost. That is entirely our own doing. Today we pray for their increase in what God gave us in baptism and what we maintain when we are in the state of grace.

We also pray this Sunday to love what God commands. In the natural spheres of our lives, doing what another commands is not always pleasant. Our wills and passions rebel. We prefer to command rather than to be commanded. It is easy, from the worldly point of view, to think that by being the one who commands we can find peace. Without doubt each one of us desires peace and happiness. We long to find the means to attain them. When we attach our happiness to the created things of this world we are inevitably disappointed. All created things, including people, can be lost. They are all passing, not enduring, temporal not eternal. Not even our most beloved spouses, children, or friends can be the foundation of lasting peace. Even the fear of losing them lessens our peace in this life. God alone provides the lasting peace we desire. Because He alone is eternal and unchanging He is perfectly trustworthy. We cannot lose God unless we ourselves reject Him. God must be in command of our happiness. Our peace must be entrusted to Him alone.

In Canto III of the Paradiso of Dante’s Divine Comedy the Poet is in the Heaven of the Moon. There he encounters the soul of Piccarda. Dante queries her about the happiness of the blessed in heaven. He wants to know if somehow, even in heaven, souls might be disappointed that they do not have a higher place in celestial realm. In response Piccarda utters one of the greatest phrases ever penned and or recited (l. 85):

In His will is our peace.
It is that sea to which all things move,
both what it creates and what nature makes….

We are all made in God’s image and likeness, made to act as God acts. He reveals something of His will to us. When we obey Him we act in accordance with the way He made us and what He intended for us. All things that live and move and have their being must come to rest in God or forever be in conflict with themselves and the cosmos. St. Augustine, who authored the unforgettable “our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee”, described us and our love as working like gravity, which in the thought of the ancients was a force within a thing that sought to go to its proper place of balance in relation to all other things. “Amor meus pondus meum” (conf 13, 9, 10) said Augustine, “My love is my weight” drawing the restless soul to God, the only source of lasting peace.

E ‘n la sua volontade è nostra pace. In His will is our peace. His peace is His promise.

Our Collect prays that we may “love what You command”. This is a prayer for happiness.