The September Ember Days (Wed, Fri, Sat) traditionally follow the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (14 September).
These days were penitential in spirit. They were also traditional times for ordinations.
If nothing else, pray during these Ember Days in a special way for an increase in vocations to the priesthood. If you cannot attend Ember Day Masses in the older form of the Roman Rite perhaps you would, in your goodness, make a donation to a diocesan or other sound vocation program.
From a reader:
Father please clear up for me our obligations for mass attendance.
Many times we hear that we are obligated to attend mass only twice a year, Christmas and Easter. Yet we also hear that we must attend every week. Which is correct and why?
I will be brief.
Unless there are some serious extenuating circumstances (e.g., infirmity, extreme distances, moral or physical impossibility, etc.) Catholics are obliged to go to Mass every Sunday and Holy Day of obligation.
However, they are obliged to receive Holy Communion once a year (i.e, the so-called Easter Duty). This usually also means going to confession, for there are precious few people who do not commit a single mortal sin in a year’s time.
The 3rd Commandment of the Decalogue covers both of these, and especially the first point. So does the virtue of religion, which obliges us to give God is His due. Reception of Holy Communion seems to have been considered important by Our Lord for our salvation (cf. John 6) which is a good enough reason for me to suggest Communion more often than once a year. Also, the Lord Himself gave His own power to His bishops and priests to forgive sins, which leads me to think that that is how He wants us to be forgiven for our sins. We should not receive Holy Communion when conscious of mortal sin, so confession before Communion is reasonable and, usually, necessary. Holy Church, the greatest expert on humanity that there is, understands that some people have a hard time getting to Mass. Think of centuries past, heck – mere decades past – when it was harder to get around, when men were on long journeys aboard sailing vessels, who were on the march in the military, who were explorers and pioneers. Once a year seems a reasonable minimum to keep people attached to the Sacrament of Penance and Communion on the most gossamer thin tether. Also, a year’s time is often reasonable for getting many canonical problems resolved to a point where a person can receive again. That is a true wonderful carrot which ought to motivate every Catholic to work on resolving, for example, problems with a non-canonical marriage situation.
So,
Mass – every Sunday and Holy Day – even if you should not, must not, receive Communion.
Communion – at minimum once a year, usually around Easter.
I am not sure where these things get started but I am getting a lot of email about a couple things that have some … some… traditional Catholics all abuzz.
First, I am still … still, I say… get email about the dastardly plot to force a “hybrid” Missal on traditional Catholics some time in 2013.
I respond saying, “HA! It is to laugh.”
The work needed for the calendar alone, even for the sanctoral cycle alone, will take years and it will be hard fought. 2013?!? pffffft!
Frankly, I can see, easily see, the introduction of some of the newer saints of more universal appeal as options in the calendar of the older Roman form. It strikes me as reasonable that some saints of less universal appeal could share some space with more recent saints inscribed in Holy Church’s album. For example, would it not be acceptable to have a proper available for, say, St. Pio? St. Maximilian Kolbe? The Spanish or Chinese Martyrs?
In any event… hybrid in 2013…. pffft!
Second, some people are asking me if the Holy Father Himself will be celebrating the Mass on the older form of the Roman Rite in November when all the people (myself, hopefully, included) make a pilgrimage to Rome.
It is a nice thought but, no, that’s not going to happen. If the Pope shows up in the Vatican Basilica to say the Pontifical Mass himself, I’ll buy everyone there a whiskey sour, starting with Benedict himself. The most the gathering could hope for is a letter from His Holiness and his Apostolic Blessing. And that would be spiffy!
On this note, it would be nice even if His Holiness of Our Lord would simply be present for a Mass coram Pontifice. Why couldn’t he just dispense with all the falderal of the no-longer-existent papal court and just say Mass as a bishop would? Yes, it would be nice to have all the other trappings. But let is not make the perfect into the enemy of the good.
From The Catholic League:
New York Times Finds Good Nuns
September 18, 2012
Bill Donohue comments on an editorial in today’s New York Times:
The editorial, “Speaking the Truth to the Vatican,” sounds so macho, especially coming from the unmanly New York Times. This time the editorial board is informing us that they have found some nuns they actually admire. Naturally, they are the dissident ones.
Though the internal affairs of the Catholic Church are no more the business of the New York Times than it is the business of the Vatican to police the newspaper’s personnel matters (the Vatican would never show such chutzpah), if they are going to stick their nose in, they should at least be accurate.
It is not true that there are no “serious doctrinal problems” or “radical feminist” issues in the ranks of some orders of nuns. Want proof? Just pick up a copy of the National Catholic Reporter where they are celebrated.
It is not true that the Leadership Conference of Women Religious represents most of the 57,000 nuns—only 1,700 pay dues.
It is not true that “much of the Roman Catholic laity has registered outrage” about Vatican inquiries into rogue nuns; most could care less.
It is not true that there is a “pedophilia scandal” in the Catholic Church: there was a homosexual scandal, but its heyday, the mid-60s to the mid-80s, is long gone.
If the Times wants to meet nuns who have never been the subject of Vatican concerns, it should do a story on any one of the orders that comprise the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious; all are loyal daughters of the Church. For that reason alone, though, they are not likely to attract the applause of the Times.
Contact our director of communications about Donohue’s remarks:
Jeff Field
Phone: 212-371-3191
E-mail: cl@catholicleague.org
A strange thing has occurred. I suspect the involvement of Titivillus or one of his ilk.
I travel with a small external hard drive upon which I store many goodies and reference works. Remember: Jesus saves… and so should you.
All of a sudden, this drive has decided all on its own that it is “write protected”.
I sure didn’t switch on write protection. SO WHO DID? Thus, my supposition at the top.
I can read everything on the drive, but I can’t save to it. There is plenty of space left. Also, as I bring things up from the drive, I get a Microsoft nag note with each item.
Does anyone have any ideas about this? (Good ideas, that is?)
Yesterday after Holy Mass at the little church on Maiden Lane near Covent Garden, a group of people met up at The Coal Hole, nearby on The Strand, for an extemp blognic. Here are a few pics of the proceedings.
Those who were down in “the hole” itself were having serious political theory discussions. When I popped in they were talking about Dante and De monarchia. No, really.
That is my pint on the empty corner. I was delighted to be drinking pints of Brains, which appealed to my inner zombie.
Here is one of the “share platters”. I think His Hermeneuticalness offered this one.
That door at the back to the left goes down into the “hole”.
I really enjoy these gatherings. It is nice to travel here and see the museums and events and sights, but the people I meet make these trips memorable and exceptional.
Changing gears, here, are a couple shots of something fun I saw yesterday from my perch over the square by the parish.
Some people were Swing dancing in the park. They had a boombox playing that great music from that era (I didn’t recognize the tunes but they were distinctly appropriate for the style of dancing).
I think this must have been a regular meeting. Some people drifted in and out. At the time I shot this one, there was only one couple dancing, but shortly before there were three, with a some on the sidelines chatting.
And, just for fun, here are a few pics from my trips to The Globe Theatre, the recreation of the “wooden O” of Shakespeare’s time not far at all from the original site. I dearly love good and reasonable productions of the Bard’s plays, and the two I have seen were well done. You may also recall my posts for Talk Like Shakespeare Day.
Here was my view for The Taming Of The Shrew. I walked up to the box office ten minutes before the play and got the dead center seat in the front row of the middle balcony.
The production was pretty bawdy, but, hey, TTOTS, is a pretty bawdy play.
My view for As You Like It, and I did. The production was superb and put a smile on my face from beginning to after the end. The company was well-rehearsed, since this was, as it turned out, their final performance.
As evening drew on, the character of the place changed. This would not have been possible in Elizabethan times. We need to remember what Holy Mass and baseball and Shakespeare were like before electric lights.
The outside view.
Two wonderful and refreshing experiences. I am soooo tempted to extend my stay a couple days with the hope of seeing their Richard III, a favorite… er um favourite.
And just because some of you are wondering about food, …
… I am pretty close to Chinatown, so I will be digging in soon. I am intrigued by one shop which is preparing squid, along with ducks. The squid are the two things that look like something from Doctor Who.
Nearby there is a shop with a window where there is often a lady making dumplings. Since I make these same, I will usually stop and watch for a bit.
She works fast, but she is cheating by not putting the classic crimp in the edge. I have seen that done before and could use some visual help. I haven’t mastered that technique.
Also, I will one day arrive in time to watch the preparation of the wrappers, accomplished by rolling with a wooden rod while turning the little disk of dough.
Just for fun, the famous Seven Dials. At the end of a day, if I don’t have some other appointment I will often wander over here. There is a pleasant pub, and the Dial reminds me of characters in Dickens and O’Brien and appeals as well to my astronomical side.
The Dial is indeed a dial. On the wall on one corner there is a bronze plaque that describes how it describes the time.
So… there we are for now.
The rest of the day will involve confessions, Mass, and then probably a visit to the British Museum.
Again, the waving flag is clickable. Some of what you donate will buy me a pint of bitter, but will also go to the parish where I am staying.
From Life News:
Abp Chaput on voting for Obama: ‘I certainly can’t vote for somebody who’s pro-choice’
by Patrick B. Craine
PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 17, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – As the November general election approaches, America’s Catholic bishops have been walking a fine line as they strive to avoid appearances of partisanship while at the same time they wage a high-profile battle against the Obama administration over religious freedom.
Earlier this month, one of the leading lights in the U.S. episcopate insisted he “certainly” could not vote for Obama, while not specifically endorsing his Republic opponent Mitt Romney.
Asked whether a Catholic could vote for Obama in good faith, Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia replied: “I can only speak in terms of my own personal views. I certainly can’t vote for somebody who’s either pro-choice or pro-abortion.”
In a wide-ranging interview with John Allen, Jr. of the National Catholic Reporter, [aka Fishwrap] published Friday, the archbishop drew a sharp distinction between a candidate’s “prudential judgments” about how we care for the poor, and his position on an intrinsic evil like abortion.
Responding to concerns over the budget proposed by Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan, which some Catholic bishops and other critics had called immoral because it cut programs to the poor, the archbishop pointed out that people of good faith can legitimately disagree over the role of government in providing aid to the poor. [Exactly. However, there are some things that we cannot legitimately disagree about.]
“Jesus tells us very clearly that if we don’t help the poor, we’re going to go to hell,” he insisted. “But Jesus didn’t say the government has to take care of them, or that we have to pay taxes to take care of them. Those are prudential judgments.”
“You can’t say that somebody’s not Christian because they want to limit taxation,” he continued. “To say that it’s somehow intrinsically evil like abortion doesn’t make any sense at all.” [Do I hear an “Amen!”?]
The archbishop, while noting he is a registered independent, said he has “deep personal concerns about any party that supports changing the definition of marriage, supports abortion in all circumstances, wants to restrict the traditional understanding of religious freedom.”
[…]
Read the rest there.
I believe it was about two years ago that His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI visited London and gave his magnificent addresses in Westminster Abbey ( wearing a stole with the coat-of-arms of Leo XIII) and Westminster Hall to civil authorities. One of my favorite moments of Benedict’s address at the Abbey came after he said that the Abbey church was dedicated to St. Peter and then he identified himself as the Successor of Peter.
This was truly a “Benedict went to Westminster” moment, in the sense of “Nixon went to China”.
WOW.
This is from Astronomy Pic of the Day.
Behold this huge Coronal Mass Ejection.
One of these days, one of these monsters will hit the Earth at just the right angle and it’ll be lights out.
TEOTWAWKI.
Enjoy your electricity while you can and have a nice day!
BTW… even after the lights go off, the Sacraments will still work, so…. GO TO CONFESSION!
After resolving the necessary prayers this morning, I helped with Communion at Mass (no EMHCs here!), said Mass, had lunch with the parish priest, sang Vespers in choro at the Brompton Oratory, and am now at the Globe Theatre waiting for As You Like It to begin!
And it is a beautiful evening.
All of a Sunday!
UPDATE
The play is over. In more ways than one. As it happens, this was the last performance.
It was GREAT. I have had a smile on my face for the last three hours. What a treat.
Make my day even better!
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