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{]:¬)

QUAERITUR: The GIRM is silent about a couple things. Fr. Z says “So what?!”

Posted on 26 August 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a reader:

#1: Some persons make the Sign of the Cross when the priest closes the Act of Penitence (‘May Almighty God have mercy on us . . . ‘), but this is not mentioned in the GIRM. Is it inadvisable to do so, or is it permissible piety, or is this one of those instances of ‘this is done in the TLM and the silence of the GIRM on this matter therefore does not exclude it’?

I think it is a great thing to do, advisable indeed. So what if it is not mentioned in the GIRM? The GIRM is silent about all sorts of things. Making the Sign of the Cross is a good, pious thing to do.

It makes sense to do it there. It has always been done there. And, with the “gravitational pull” exerted again by the Usus Antiquior, let it always be done there.

Reason #2478 for Summorum Pontificum.

#2: Some persons bow profoundly when the Final Blessing is given; again, the GIRM is silent on the matter. Is this appropriate? It would make sense if it is appropriate, as we are sometimes asked to ‘bow down’ for blessings – but this is not prescribed.

Sure. Go ahead and bow. As a matter of fact, I’d say go ahead and kneel for the blessing.

Moreover, people are supposed to bow during the Creed, but how many do? It’s right there in the GIRM, right? I say, start kneeling again at “et homo factus est”!

Furthermore, I think it would be great were women to start using chapel veils again and were everyone to come to church in their “Sunday Best”.

And another thing!

Fathers! Just…

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, ASK FATHER Question Box, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, New Evangelization, Our Catholic Identity, SUMMORUM PONTIFICUM | Tagged GIRM, kneeling, maniple, Sign of the Cross, Sunday best
44 Comments

Woman drinks water from a Muslim’s cup … death sentence.

Posted on 26 August 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

In the New York Post I saw an article about a Christian woman who was sentenced to death for drinking water from a cup owned by a practitioner of the Religion of Peace.

Sentenced to death for a sip of water
As her religion faces persecution across the Middle East, a Christian woman explains why she faces hanging in Pakistan for the crime of ‘blasphemy’

By ASIA BIBI

To her neighbors, Aasiya Noreen “Asia” Bibi, a poor mother of five in the tiny village of Ittan Wali in central Pakistan, was guilty — guilty of being Christian in a nation that is 97% Muslim. For four years she has languished in a prison cell for this, facing death by hanging. Her new memoir, “Blasphemy,” was dictated to her husband from jail, who relayed it to French journalist Anne-Isabelle Tollet. Fifty percent of the proceeds the book will go to support Bibi and her family. Tollet says the situation is dire. Embarrassed by Bibi’s case but still refusing to release her because of angry protests by extremists, the Pakistan government has transferred her to a more remote prison, hoping the 42-year-old dies quietly behind bars, perhaps poisoned by another inmate. Already two government officials who have spoken out on her behalf have been murdered, including Minister for Minorities Shahbaz Bhatti, who was killed by the Taliban. In this excerpt, Bibi explains the simple “transgression” that led to her plight.

[…]

Read the rest there.

Sts. Nunilo and Alodia, pray for us.

Posted in The Coming Storm, The future and our choices, The Last Acceptable Prejudice, The Religion of Peace | Tagged Islam, Pakistan, Religion of Peace, Sts. Nunilo and Alodia
6 Comments

ALERT PHOENIX! 26-27 August – Two talks you do NOT want to miss!

Posted on 26 August 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

In the Catholic Sun, issued by the Diocese of Phoenix, I see advertised something that you do NOT want to miss if you are anywhere in the vicinity.

Priest with Vatican, Phoenix ties to share Church’s wisdom in Scottsdale

Fr. Robert Dodaro, OSA, president of the Patristic Institute and Professor of Patristic Theology at the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome, and consultor for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, is vacationing in the Valley and agreed to give two separate talks open to the public. His talks are 7:30 p.m. Aug. 26-27 at St. Daniel the Prophet Parish, 1030 N. Hayden Road in Scottsdale (map).

The first night will cover “The Year of Two Popes.” Fr. Dodaro, an Augustinian priest who was once a parishioner at St. Theresa in Phoenix, will examine the transition from Pope Benedict XVI to Pope Francis and the difference between the two popes.

The president of the Patristic Institute and consultor for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, will present “The Church: Who’s in it and who’s not? Who’s saved and who’s not” Aug. 27. His talk will examine the relation between membership in the Church and salvation from the perspective of St. Augustine of Hippo and current Roman Catholic teaching. Fr. Dodaro is a specialist in the theology of St. Augustine.

A Q-and-A follows each talk.

I wish I were in Phoenix. I would go. I hope the talks are being recorded. Brilliant speaker. Hard-identity Catholicism.

Fr. Dodaro is also the author of one of the best books on St. Augustine out there. It is a hard book, however, and not for the average reader.

Christ and the Just Society in the Thought of Augustine

Please go. And tell him Fr. Z sent you!

Posted in New Evangelization, Our Catholic Identity, The Campus Telephone Pole | Tagged D. Phoenix, Fr. Robert Dodaro OSA
11 Comments

NOTE TO READERS: Mass for Benefactors

Posted on 26 August 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I’ll say Mass again for my benefactors on Thursday 29 August, one of my feast days: Beheading of John the Baptist.

By benefactors I mean all of you who have sent donations or items from my lists. And I always include DY, AK, and JS.

I also appreciate your notes with positive feedback about how the blog has been of help and expression of prayers.

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
Comments Off

FIRST THINGS: The Elite Project of Gay Marriage

Posted on 26 August 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

At First Things there is a good article by R.R. Reno. Here’s the first part.

The Elite Project of Gay Marriage
August 26, 2013
R.R. Reno

Same sex marriage has become the issue of our time. Michael Kinsley summed the situation nicely: “You may be in favor of raising taxes on the rich, increasing support for the poor, nurturing the planet, and repealing Section 14(b) of the Taft-Hartley Act, but if you don’t support gay marriage, you’re out of the club.” [Blech.]

How did this come to pass? There’s no easy answer, which is not surprising. Same sex marriage is the issue because lots of different interests, concerns, and trends converge on it.

The first thing to say is that the gay rights movement has been largely an upper middle class project. Thurgood Marshall attended Lincoln University, an all-black college in southeastern Pennsylvania, and then Howard University Law School. Gay activist Larry Kramer went to Yale. Judge Vaughn Walker went to Stanford Law School. I have little doubt that the first gay Supreme Court Justice will be a graduate of either Yale or Harvard Law Schools.

There are many reasons why the gay rights movement is so upscale. When I was active in the national politics of the Episcopal Church, I came to see that homosexuality in general plays an important symbolic role in upper middle class culture. It’s an image of transgression, and to affirm it relieves moral pressure, giving room for our own transgressive desires. If two men can have sex, then surely there are no traditional limits on what men and women can do.

Against this background of transgression same-sex marriage reassures. It provides a bourgeois context, domesticating homosexuality and folding it back into ordinary patterns of bourgeois discipline. [More like “forcing” or even “jamming”.] As so, for the typical bourgeois Episcopalian, supporting gay rights was a way of reinforcing his conviction that expanded sexual freedom can be made entirely consistent with the modes of social control that predominate among successful Americans.

[…]

The next step in the strategy of social re-engineering will be polygamy and then, the brass ring on the carousel, will be the elimination of the age of consent.

Read the rest of the article over there.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Liberals, One Man & One Woman, The Drill, The future and our choices, The Last Acceptable Prejudice | Tagged homosexual activists, homosexuality
44 Comments

Sunday Supper: Old Fashioned Edition

Posted on 25 August 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

What are you having? Are you having a good meal with others as you sanctify your Sunday?

Here’s an old fashioned drink.

Vietnamese tonight.

Spring rolls and Pho!

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
24 Comments

“¡Qué intervención papal, Hombre Murciélago!”

Posted on 25 August 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

You have probably heard that Pope Francis recently made a direct personal phone call to someone.

This is in from the jocose Eye of the Tiber:

Pope Francis Calls Zack Snyder To Complain About Choice Of Ben Affleck For Batman

Hollywood, CA––”Hello, it’s Pope Francis,” were the first words spoken during a conversation in which His Holiness telephoned Zack Snyder, director of the upcoming film “Man of Steel 2.” “Hello Your Holiness,” answered a dazed Snyder, no stranger to celebrities but still star struck to be speaking to the Holy Father, the Vicar of Christ on earth. “Listen, I’ll get to the point,” said Pope Francis, “I thought 300 was awesome, and Man of Steel was pretty great too. But I don’t know about Ben Affleck as Batman in your next movie.” Snyder reportedly stuttered at this point, unsure what to answer His Holiness. “I mean, I trust you as a director and all that, and I’m sure it won’t be that bad, but there really weren’t any better choices? I mean this is the guy that played Daredevil. Did you even see that movie?” Snyder then reportedly answered that he had not. “Exactly,” answered the Pope, before concluding, “My son, I’m not saying this is an enormous mistake or anything, and I’m certainly not speaking ex cathedra here. I’m just asking you to reflect a little more when you make decisions like this.”

¡Papa Francisco acude en auxilio! Santo Padre, por favor, ayuda a los pobres admiradores de Batman!

^{And, yes, I know that Batman in Spanish is “Batman”.}

Posted in Francis, Lighter fare | Tagged Batman, Pope Francis
8 Comments

Your Sunday Sermon Notes

Posted on 25 August 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Was there a good point in the sermon you heard at Mass for Sunday?

Let us know what it is!

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
22 Comments

YOUR URGENT PRAYER REQUESTS

Posted on 25 August 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Please use the sharing buttons! Thanks!

Registered or not, will you in your charity please take a moment look at the requests and to pray for the people about whom you read?

Continued from THESE.

I get many requests by email asking for prayers. Many requests are heart-achingly grave and urgent.

As long as my blog reaches so many readers in so many places, let’s give each other a hand. We should support each other in works of mercy.

If you have some prayer requests, feel free to post them below. You have to be registered here to be able to post.

Finally, I have two pressing personal petitions.

Posted in Urgent Prayer Requests |
28 Comments

Note to parents, etc: back packs and bags with built in alarms

Posted on 25 August 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Click the "iSafe" link at the end of this entry.

I saw a commercial for a type of back-pack which may be of interest to parents with children in school and even for some of you ladies and gentlemen out there.

The pack, made by iSafe, has a built in loud alarm which sounds when you pull a cord.

There are back packs for children, like school bags, and also full-sized adult packs, messenger bags, fanny packs, slings, etc. There are lots of styles.

For adults with the right skills and temperament, there is the CCW option. Some of you eschew that option and it is, of course, out of the question for children. It is not for everyone.

Having at least some sort of loud alarm, already built into a pack you are going to use anyway in your daily routine, could be a good personal safety option.

I’d hate to read about something awful that happened in your lives.

There is no harm in taking a look. It might make a difference in a moment of need.

Being prepared gives you or your kids an advantage when that moment of need arrives.