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 Sunday Sermon Notes

Posted on 30 December 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Was there a good point in your Sunday sermon which you can tell us?

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
21 Comments

Merenda Time

Posted on 29 December 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

It’s mid-afternoon coffee time.

How is your supply?

You know what to do.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, What Fr. Z is up to | Tagged coffee, espresso, Mystic Monk Coffee
7 Comments

A suggested Twitter project for @Pontifex

Posted on 29 December 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Now that the initial furor around the Holy Father’s Twitter account has died down a little, I want to pass along a suggestion made by a reader who left me a constructive voicemail.

We could designate a day to post prayerful, helpful tweets to the Holy Father (@Pontifex). If we concentrate our efforts on a certain day with the same language, we will create a “stack” of good tweets, instead of scatterings over days when they might not be noticed.

For example, a theme for our @Pontifex Day could be “Summorum Pontificum”.

@Pontifex Holy Father, thank you for #SummorumPontificum.

Otherwise, on other days.

@Pontifex Holy Father, I offered my Sunday Communion for your intention.

@Pontifex Holy Father, I prayed my #Rosary for you today.

Get the idea?

We should all use the same language.

Perhaps we should designate Tuesdays as the day for this? I suggest Tuesdays because the Roman Curia is open for business in the evening.

On Monday, the theme for the Tuesday could be announced.

I’ll keep the combox open, but I’ve turned on moderation.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Benedict XVI | Tagged Pontifex, tweet, Twitter
24 Comments

New CatholicsComeHome.org commercial

Posted on 29 December 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

A few weeks ago I attended a talk given by Tom Peterson who created VirtueMedia.org and CatholicsComeHome.org

Perhaps you have seen some of his commercials.

Here is the latest, with Coach Lou Holtz.

[wp_youtube]xcMGJmB5D84[/wp_youtube]

Here, in case you haven’t seen one of them, is another:

[wp_youtube]1bmQS_DGe8M[/wp_youtube]

Posted in Brick by Brick, Just Too Cool, New Evangelization, Our Catholic Identity | Tagged CatholicsComeHome.org, fallen away Catholics
14 Comments

QUAERITUR: Friday penance in the Octave of Christmas revisited

Posted on 29 December 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Yesterday I facetiously posted about Friday penance during the Octave of Christmas.

Days (other than Sunday) within the Octave of Christmas are not “heavy enough” (as a “solemnity” would be) to “outweigh” the Friday obligation to do some sort of penance as determined by the conferences of bishops. In the 1962 Missale Romanum they are “II class”, which corresponds to the newer, non-traditional calendar’s “feast”. In the 2001 Missale Romanum they are categorized as second class, as “feasts”. If, howeverm you are at a parish named “Holy Innocents”, such as that great place in Manhattan, and the Feast of the Holy Innocents falls on the Friday, you might argue that it is greater due to it being the patronal feast.

Bottom line, the Octave of Christmas does not have the “weight” of the Octave of Easter.

So, pay attention to can. 1251.

Can. 1251 Abstinence from meat, or from some other food as determined by the Episcopal Conference, is to be observed on all Fridays, unless a solemnity should fall on a Friday. Abstinence and fasting are to be observed on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.

And, you can ask your parish priest to dispense you or commute your act of penance.

Can. 1245 Without prejudice to the right of diocesan bishops mentioned in can. 87, for a just cause and according to the prescripts of the diocesan bishop, a pastor[parish priest] can grant in individual cases a dispensation from the obligation of observing a feast day or a day of penance or can grant a commutation of the obligation into other pious works. A superior of a religious institute or society of apostolic life, if they are clerical and of pontifical right, can also do this in regard to his own subjects and others living in the house day and night.

You can substitute another form of penance for abstaining from meat. Make it penitential, however. Abstinence from meat has good reasoning behind it. For some, however, there abstinence from other things can be of greater spiritual effect.

Posted in SESSIUNCULA | Tagged can. 1245, can. 1251, Friday abstinence, meat, Octave of Christmas
13 Comments

QUAERITUR: Recorded music during Mass

Posted on 29 December 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a reader:

Father, is it possible to play recorded mp3s of Gregorian chants during Mass? This scenario is based on the following assumptions:
there is no choir available, the existing choir was newly formed and had little time to practice, and/or they are not willing to chant.

No, this isn’t permitted.

As far back as 1958 in the important Congregation of Rites’ instruction De Musica Sacra we find at 60 c:

Finally, only those musical instruments which are played by the personal action of the artist may be admitted to the sacred liturgy, and not those which are operated automatically or mechanically.

If memory serves, there is another more recent document which repeats this prohibition. However, there is a discrepancy. I believe more recent legislation in Masses for Children it is possible to use some recorded music. I think it is a bad idea to allow for that. Someone out there will claim, “there is a child at this Mass, therefore it is a Mass for children, therefore I can use recorded music”.

Recorded music does not substitute for a living human choir or singer. The artificiality introduced is contrary to the concept of our active participation in the sacred mysteries and the action of the true Actor at Mass, who is Christ the High Priest.

That said, recorded music can be played in church for the purpose of instruction in singing. I also recall that it can be used outside church for the sake of processions.

It may be tempting, from the desire to have excellent music, to use a recording. But that’s a no-no, I’m afraid.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, ASK FATHER Question Box, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000 | Tagged 1958, audio recordings, De musica sacra, recorded music
18 Comments

QUAERITUR: Penances appropriate for a married layperson

Posted on 28 December 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a reader:

I have a question regarding what kind of penances I should do as a married layperson. I feel a strong desire to do penance both for personal sins and as a sacrifice for the conversion of my family.

However, while I feel this desire, I have no knowledge of the best way to go about it.

I have tried skipping meals as it seems like a good and “private”
thing to do, but I often feel weak and my wife gets upset with me and says I need the calories.

I enjoy beer and pipe smoking, so I often give these up. The problem is, they don’t feel like very good sacrifices. I feel like should be doing something more concrete or difficult.

It seems to me that fasting is a pretty good penance/mortification. Cutting back on the quantity of food you eat is something that can be done daily, so long as you do not endanger your health or ability to care for your family.

The Latin Fathers, such as Leo the Great, attached almsgiving to fasting. Fasting wasn’t just about fasting. It was about then giving what was saved to the poor.

Thus, though we are always called to perform spiritual and corporal works of mercy, our penances can be more significant if we attach works of mercy to them.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, ASK FATHER Question Box, Our Catholic Identity | Tagged corporal works of mercy, fasting, mortification, penance, Spiritual Works of Mercy
35 Comments

2013 Ordo from Canons of St John Cantius

Posted on 28 December 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I posting from my mobile phone in an airplane, so I must be brief.

The canons at St John Cantius in Chicago sent me a spiffy new Ordo for the Usus Antiquior.

Here are some photos to give you an idea of what it is like.

May I depend on one of you kind readers to provide the proper link to their site if I am unable to get it posted before they close the door on me?

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, REVIEWS | Tagged Ordo
13 Comments

Dutch Catholics “de-baptizing”

Posted on 28 December 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From Reuters:

Website helps Dutch Catholics “de-baptize” over gay marriage

(Reuters) – Thousands of Dutch Catholics are researching how they can leave the church in protest at its opposition to gay marriage, according to the creator of a website aimed at helping them find the information.

Tom Roes, whose website allows people to download the documents needed to leave the church, said traffic on ontdopen.nl – “de-baptise.nl” – had soared from about 10 visits a day to more than 10,000 after Pope Benedict’s latest denunciation of gay marriage this month.

“Of course it’s not possible to be ‘de-baptized’ because a baptism is an event, but this way people can unsubscribe or de-register themselves as Catholics,” Roes told Reuters.

He said he did not know how many visitors to the site actually go ahead and leave the church.

About 28 percent of the population in the Netherlands is Catholic and 18 percent is Protestant, while a much larger proportion – roughly 44 percent – is not religious, according to official statistics.

The country is famous for its liberal attitudes, for example to drugs and prostitution, and in April 2001 it was the first in the world to legalize same-sex marriages.

In a Christmas address to Vatican officials, the pope signaled the he was ready to forge alliances with other religions against gay marriage, saying the family was threatened “to its foundations” by attempts to change its “true structure”.

Roes, a television director, said he left the church and set up his website partly because he was angry about the way the church downplayed or covered-up sexual abuse in Catholic orphanages, boarding schools and seminaries.

A report by an independent commission published a year ago said there had been tens of thousands of victims of child sexual abuse in the Netherlands since 1945 and criticized the church’s culture of silence.

Allow me also to quote the Second Vatican Council’s Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium 14:

“They could not be saved who, knowing that the Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through Christ, would refuse either to enter it, or to remain in it.”

New Evangelization anyone?

It is impossible to “un-baptize” yourself, by the way.

Perhaps because I am a deeply flawed sinner who stumbles in charity at times, I can’t help but think:

“Good riddance.”

Posted in New Evangelization, Our Catholic Identity, The Drill, The future and our choices |
41 Comments