Vor the tired brethren…. Vespers from the older, traditional form of the Office.
No frills… well most of it is no frills…. I sing the hymn, Magnificat antiphon and Magnificat.
It is a feast, after all, and the liturgical (if not calendrical) anniversary of my ordination.
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No eye has seen and no ear has heard what God has prepared for those who attain the bliss of heaven.
Christ has won for us the most precious gift of all: membership in the Kingdom of God.
It is a membership which we can reject and lose, however. And so we strive by elbow grease and especially by grace to retain that which He has offered and win that which, in Him, our humanity has won.
God desires to share His own glory with us. The sight of God, God’s presence, will 
transform us forever.
This is the highest of man’s longings, to be worked out in fear and trembling, but with joyful confidence, through love of God and love of neighbor.
Today we will with help strive for a glimpse of the heaven awaiting us.
Our help will be Il Poeta, THE Poet, Dante Alighieri who, at the very end of the Divine Comedy strives in words to give us something of a glimpse of heaven.
We will hear today Canto 33 of the Paradiso in the translation of Anthony Esolen.
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103 10-05-24 The new translation of the 2nd Eucharist Prayer; Fr. Z digresses and rants
102 10-05-21 Exploring the new English translation of the Roman Canon; voicemail
Along the way you will hear something
And also
And also
From a reader:
Help, my daughters wedding was yesterday and I was stuck, what is an appropriate tip or gratuity for the our parish Priest, besides what the parish charges, 20 50 100 I’m lost. After the Mass I just stood there and didn’t want to look cheap or stupid. Your view would be of great service here Father
It is appropriate to give the priest something after a wedding.
It strikes me that $100 not too much. It could be more.
The priest has the right to "live from the altar", as the old phrase goes. The local diocese may have a policy about Mass stipends and "stole fees", as these "tips" to the priest are called. It is the priest’s responsibility to handle them properly once he receives them.
In addition to the stole fee, there are three more things people can give priests which they will very much appreciate:
From a reader:
I was at Mass today. It was a First Holy Communion. There were many things that were obviously not right, but one thing stood above the rest of the usual novelties and abuses. It was the Eucharistic Prayer. I know it didn’t seem right to me, however I am not at all familiar with the GIRM or with what is actually permitted, especially for so-called children’s liturgies. However, I’m pretty sure it wasn’t right.
Anyway, I lifted this from the Mass booklet that was produced. [Excellent.. they actually printed it.]
I was wondering if you could advise me on what exactly is going on here and what might be done to address this issue.
This is what the reader sent:
This was the Eucharistic Prayer. The congregation were encouraged to say the bits in bold.
Lord, accept these gifts of bread and wine we offer you on this happy day. In your fatherly love watch over and protect all the boys and girls who receive your body for the first time today, may this mystery of unselfish love, increase their love for you and for each other. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Lord be with you.
And also with you.
Lift up your hearts.
We lift them up to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give God thanks and praise.
God, our loving Father, we are glad to give you thanks and praise because you love us. With Jesus we proclaim your praise.
Response: Glory to God in the highest.
Because you love us, you gave us this great and beautiful world. With Jesus we proclaim your praise:
Response: Glory to God in the highest.
Because you love us, you sent Jesus your son to bring us to you and to gather us around him as the children of one family. With Jesus we proclaim your praise:
Response: Glory to God in the highest.
For such great love we thank you with the angels and saints as they praise you and sing:
Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might….
Blessed be Jesus, whom you sent to be the friend of children and of the poor. He came to show us how we can love you, father, by loving one another. He came to take away sin, which keeps us from being friends, and hate, which makes us all unhappy. He promised to send the Holy Spirit, to be with us always so that we can live as your children.
Response: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.
God our Father, we now ask you to send your Holy Spirit to change these gifts of bread and wine into the body + and blood of Jesus Christ, our Lord.
The night before he died, Jesus your Son showed us how much you love us.
When he was at supper with his disciples, he took bread, and gave you thanks and praise. Then he broke the bread, gave it to his friends, and said:
Take this all of you, and eat it: This is my body, which will be given up for you.
Response: Jesus has given his life for us.
When supper was ended, Jesus took the cup that was filled with wine. He thanked you, gave it to his friends and said:
Take this, all of you, and drink from it: This is the cup of my blood, the blood of the new and everlasting covenant. It will be shed for you and for all so that sins may be forgiven.
Response: Jesus has given his life for us.
Then he said to them: Do this in memory of me.
And so loving Father, we remember that Jesus died and rose again to save the world. He put himself into our hands to be the sacrifice we offer you.
Response: We praise you, we bless you, we thank you.
Lord our God, listen to our prayer. Send the Holy Spirit to all of us who share in this meal. May this Spirit bring us closer together in the family of the Church, with Benedict, our Pope, Joseph, our bishop, and all who serve your people.
Response: We praise you, we bless you, we thank you
[……]And so it went like this until the end of the Eucharistic Prayer.
At Holy Communion time, all the first communicants and their parents were invited to stand in an arc around the altar, and the priest shook hands with them all (perhaps 40 or 50 people) and distributed Holy Communion first to the first communicants, then to their parents.
I didn’t know there is any form of any Eucharistic Prayer that looks like this. I did find this, however. There are Eucharistic Prayers for Masses with Children. I don’t use Eucharistic Prayers for Children. I don’t think there should even be Eucharistic Prayers for Children. I don’t think it is right to talk down to children when you don’t have to and when the occasion is, how to put this… not childish.
Also, I am unaware that it is permitted for people to gather around the altar in that manner.
I am also pretty sure that the priest is to receive Communion before others, not after.
What I would suggest you do when you have a doubt about something – and when you have something printed – is to send a copy of the booklet to the local bishop asking the bishop if [X] is approved. I am assuming that the pastor of the parish has been unresponsive.
If that doesn’t produce a good anwer, or any answer, send also a copy of your letter to the bishop and a copy of the booklet to the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments.
Ask if this is permitted and what approve book this comes from.
Address:
His Eminence
Antonio Card. Canizares Llovera
Prefect of the Congregation for
Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments
Palazzo delle Congregazioni
P.za Pio XII
00120 VATICAN CITY
No frills 1st Vespers with the Breviarium Romanum for the tired brethren.
And Compline.
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My friend His Hermeneuticalness has hit for six.
Here is a sample. But definitely go over to his place and spike his stats even while reading the rest of this excellent entry.
My emphases and comments:
Judge not, that you may not be judged. For with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged: and with what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you again. (Matt 7.1-2)
How often do we see this verse quoted in response to Catholic blog posts? Criticise the public actions of a politician or a high-ranking ecclesiastic and you can be sure that someone will say that you should not be "judgmental". Should bloggers cringe in shame at failing to observe the teaching of Our Lord in the Sermon on the Mount? I think we can reasonably take a deeper look at this. [Do I hear an "Amen!"?]
We cannot "judge" someone in the way that God judges us. (He will judge us, by the way.) [As a matter of fact, we will receive His judgment whether we want it or not. But His mercy is ours for the asking.] We do not have the right to make such a judgement, or in fact the information on which to base it. Only God knows the subjective state of an individual’s soul. So even if we consider the infernal columns’ brutal repression of the rising in the Vendée, the Mexican campaign against priests such as St Christopher Magellanes, the shooting of the intellectuals in Mao’s China or Pol Pot’s Cambodia, Lenin and Stalin’s atrocities (or indeed the Nazi concentration camps) it is still only God who can judge the individual’s state of soul. Nevertheless, we can and should judge all of those publicly known horrors as objectively evil. [We human beings are made in God’s image, with an intellect and the ability and obligation to make judgments. Not as God judges, but according to the Truth. We have our intellect and also the help of authority for the process of making judgments about that which is good, true and beautiful. To refuse to make judgments about such things is to deny our humanity.]
In the case of politicians who have voted in favour of abortion, embryo experimentation, assisted suicide, and passive euthanasia, we are entitled to look at their voting record and to make an objective judgement that what they have voted for is wrong, and call them to account for it. A public figure, making public decisions, in the public square, [open actions in the public square!] may be subjected to reasonable judgement as to the rightness or wrongness of their public actions. The political life of the country would not function without the people being able to express their opinions in such matters.
[…]
I love this story:
Congo paraplegic band rocks around the world
From Neil Curry CNNCannes, France (CNN) — A group of disabled Congolese musicians could soon become a global sensation after an acclaimed documentary about the group was shown at the Cannes Film Festival.
The core members of Staff Benda Bilili are four musicians who suffered from polio as children. Three use wheelchairs, one is on crutches, and together they make heartfelt music that is winning fans far beyond their homeland.
With their soulful harmonies and hypnotic Congolese rumba beat, their music has been likened to Buena Vista Social Club. [Which I very much like.] And like the Cuban group, Staff Benda Bilili is crossing over into the international mainstream.
They are about to embark on a grueling tour that will see them perform at venues and festivals all over Europe this summer, before touring Japan.
But their new-found fame is a far cry from years spent making a living on the streets of Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
It was in Kinshasa in 2004 that they met French filmmakers Florent de La Tullaye and Renaud Barret, who were in the city documenting its music scene.
The filmmakers fell in love with Staff Benda Bilili’s music and offered to pay for their recording sessions, before making a film about the group.
Barret told CNN, "The idea was to record an album, because they were like virtuosos [who were] completely ignored, and we had the feeling that they could die very easily, because everybody dies very easily in Kinshasa — which is not funny.
"We had to do the album first. We didn’t intend to do the movie, but we were filming them on a daily basis while doing the rehearsals, the ups and downs, and in 2006 we realized we had shot the inside story of complete outsiders trying to emerge in one of the most complicated and brutal cities in the world."
[…]
Read the rest there.
I am always enheartened when a find a parish where large percentages of the congregation receive Holy Communion on the tongue directly, and even more when kneeling.
In his entry, Fr. Heliman first presents a Youtube of Bp. Morlino preaching, I was alerted by a reader to an interesting post by Fr. Rick Heilman, a priest in the Diocese of Madison, on his blog Mary’s Anawim.
Fr. Heilman presented first a Youtube video of Bp. Morlino of Madison who preached in a parish inviting people to kneel to receive Communion. The bishop hedges what he is asking with all sorts of statements, but his message is excellent.
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNz9VFl788I]
T
hen Fr. Heliman writes this:
This is my Bishop, I am proud to say. Two weeks after he gave this homily in his parish, I began to offer a kneeler to my people in my parish. It has made all the difference in the world! [Do I hear an "Amen!"?]
Prior to offering the option of kneeling and receiving on the tongue (which was offered with much teaching), I may have had a small handful of people who felt comfortable enough to receive on the tongue. Since offering the option, I now have 60-70% of my parishioners receiving this way. [OORAH!]
It is difficult to describe how much it has helped so many who were, as Bishop speaks about, ”desensitized” before making the choice to receive in this way. Now they approach in a much more discerning and serene way. I have even noticed such things as people choosing to get a bit more dressed up for Mass. Praise God!
A word of caution: For those parishes who choose to do this, I would say that the divine benefits far outweigh the earthly costs. In other words, I have come to understand, over 22 years of priesthood, that if we are going to choose to do the hard work of reversing the trend in our churches of a growing ‘cult of the casual’ and ‘privatization’ of our faith, we are going to be met with FIERCE opposition. [True.] Having encountered such disproportionate hostility toward any efforts to call us to a deeper reverence (while introducing each effort with much love and much teaching), has left me convinced [PAY ATTENTION:] that this is particular turf the devil does not want to give up without a fight. [OORAH!] Which tells us this is all the more reason why this is a fight in which we must engage.
[…]
Go and read the rest there.
Official WDTPRS kudos to this diligent priest.
Nicholas Kristof has written blasphemous and historically inaccurate pieces for his mack Hell’s Bible. He now turns attention to the situation of a Catholic woman religious who, as a hospital administrator in Arizona, approved the killing of unborn child through direct abortion. In Hell’s Bible…
Note what is not written. The word "abortion" isn’t used but once. The word "child" is not used. He drags in, absolutely gratuitously, pedophila.
Op-Ed Columnist
Sister Margaret’s Choice
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Published: May 26, 2010We finally have a case where the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy is responding forcefully and speedily to allegations of wrongdoing.
But the target isn’t a pedophile priest. Rather, it’s a nun who helped save a woman’s life. [Let’s turn this around: approved the killing of the helpless and innocent.] Doctors describe her as saintly.
The excommunication of Sister Margaret McBride in Phoenix underscores all that to me feels morally obtuse about the church hierarchy. [Let’s make another bigoted statement such as, "At some time or other a Latino – even more than one – has stolen hub caps from a car. Latinos are all thieves." Kristof is a bigot. Look at the way his mind works.] I hope that a public outcry can rectify this travesty.
Sister Margaret was a senior administrator of St. Joseph’s Hospital in Phoenix. A 27-year-old mother of four arrived late last year, in her third month of pregnancy. According to local news reports and accounts from the hospital and some of its staff members, the mother suffered from a serious complication called pulmonary hypertension. That created a high probability that the strain of continuing pregnancy would kill her.
“In this tragic case, the treatment necessary to save the mother’s life required the termination of an 11-week pregnancy,” [The word for this is "abortion".] the hospital said in a statement. “This decision was made after consultation with the patient, her family, her physicians, and in consultation with the Ethics Committee.” [Anyone left out?]
Sister Margaret was a member of that committee. She declined to discuss the episode with me, but the bishop of Phoenix, Thomas Olmstead, ruled that Sister Margaret was “automatically excommunicated” because she assented to an abortion. [Note that it is not Bp. Olmstead who issued the excommunication. The bishop gave his opinion that she incurred an automatic excommunication.]
“The mother’s life cannot be preferred over the child’s,” the bishop’s communication office elaborated in a statement.
Let us just note that the Roman Catholic hierarchy [again the generalization] suspended priests who abused children and in some cases defrocked them but did not normally excommunicate them, so they remained able to take the sacrament. [Kristof used the word "obtuse". He is perhaps being obtuse now. Does he know what excommunication is? I think not.]
Since the excommunication, Sister Margaret has left her post as vice president and is no longer listed as one of the hospital executives on its Web site. The hospital told me that she had resigned “at the bishop’s request” but is still working elsewhere at the hospital.
I heard about Sister Margaret from an acquaintance who is a doctor at the hospital. After what happened to Sister Margaret, he doesn’t dare be named, but he sent an e-mail to his friends lamenting the excommunication of “a saintly nun”:
“She is a kind, soft-spoken, humble, caring, spiritual woman whose spot in Heaven was reserved years ago,” he said in the e-mail message. “The idea that she could be ex-communicated after decades of service to the Church and humanity literally makes me nauseated.” [GOOD! It should! But not for the reasons this person is suggesting.]
“True Christians, [!] like Sister Margaret, understand that real life ["real life"] is full of difficult moral decisions [because priests or bishops don’t know this, of course] and pray [now he is an expert on prayer] that they make the right decision in the context of Christ’s teachings. Only a group of [get this] detached, pampered men in gilded robes on a balcony high above the rest of us could deny these dilemmas.” [Bigot.]
[… Let’s cut to the final stupid bit of religious hate speech…]
When a hierarchy of mostly aging men pounce on and excommunicate a revered nun who was merely trying to save a mother’s life, the church seems to me almost as out of touch as it was in the cruel and debauched days of the Borgias in the Renaissance.
This is an exercise in being clever so that readers of the New York Time can congratulate themselves and reassure themselves that they are superior beings.
I’ll keep the combox off for this.
For your "brick by brick" file… from a reader:
Dear father, with all the negative publicity that the Archdiocese of Seattle has received lately with Fr. Ryan’s public dissent and Fr. Jan Larsen’s column, it is refreshing to know that at least one parish is taking the "reform of the reform" and Pope Benedict’s liturgical vision seriously. Here is a beautiful letter from the pastor of Blessed Sacrament Parish, Fr. Daniel Syverstad http://www.blessed-sacrament.org/ explaining the tradition of ad orientem worship. Perhaps you’ll consider this for posting on your blog? God bless, father!
A Letter from the Pastor of Blessed Sacrament Church
On the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity, 2010
Blessed Sacrament Parish will celebrate its feast day on Sunday, June 6, on the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, the Body and Blood of Christ. To commemorate this great day in the life of the parish and the universal Church, we are celebrating a special Mass at noon that will include the procession of the Blessed Sacrament around the grounds of our parish, both to signify the importance of the Eucharist and to celebrate the body of Christ, the people. The procession will be followed by a catered luncheon in appreciation for the entire parish.
I have also decided, after conferring with my associate, Jesson Mata, Director of Liturgy and Music, to celebrate the noon Mass “ad orientem” in the vernacular, that is, English. The phrase “ad orientem” means “to the east.” It is a way of celebrating Mass in which the priest faces the same direction as the people. At Blessed Sacrament, this would mean the priest, in effect, prays towards the crucifix in the same direction as the people. We call this form of prayer “ad orientem” because the east is where the sun rises. Christ himself is the rising sun. For early Christians, praying towards the east, towards the dawn, towards Christ himself, would have been a common liturgical posture. The practice of facing east in Catholic liturgy is not a literal directional issue, however; in fact, facing the crucifix at Blessed Sacrament Church is facing directional west. The orientation is primarily towards Christ, who is effectively symbolized by the crucifix.
Why are we doing this now?
The practice of facing the east is an age-old custom that has been kept in the treasury of Catholic worship and a practice we can use today in the Mass. I have decided to resurrect this custom because I believe it is important in the prayer life of the parish. [Do I hear an "Amen!"?]
I have been at Blessed Sacrament Church for seven years now. Five years ago, I invited Jesson Mata to join the staff as my associate for liturgy. Throughout the course of these five years, Jesson and I have labored together to enhance the prayer life of the church through the diverse offerings of Catholic liturgy. While diversity in liturgical practice can sometimes be counterproductive to the goal of deepening our prayer lives, what we have accomplished thus far has produced remarkable effects. I have seen us pray for and support the sick, the elderly, and the poor in our community. I have seen our young people engaged in their faith. I have witnessed our people care for the sick and dying in the hospitals. We have invited and welcomed the stranger amidst us. I have even observed strong disagreements among our people that have been resolved with respect for one another. These effects can be attributed to our life of prayer. While there are many forms of prayer, there is only one God, only one Christ; and one Spirit who breathes life into our Church. It is that same Spirit that continues to guide this parish.
My intention, as your pastor, is to continue to build our Dominican community by employing the rich traditions of Catholic worship and Catholic theology. I want to build a church dedicated to the pursuit of truth. I strongly believe that Blessed Sacrament has a great potential to become a true Dominican center for faith formation and evangelization. I envision a church with many rooms, where its members engage each other in the faith; where wisdom and knowledge are shared and spoken; where authentic dialogue happens naturally, amidst the diversity of minds and backgrounds; where peace and justice meet; and where each of us may find a place to pray.
The Mass is the ultimate expression of thanksgiving and my hope is for you to join your prayers to mine in that perfect prayer to God. The prayer that I say during the Mass is not simply my own. In fact, the prayers are of and for the entire Church, both yours and mine. I wonder sometimes if people believe that the Mass belongs to the priest. We often think (because of variants that occur with each presider) that the Mass is centrally about the priest. It is not. It is not about me. The Mass is Christ’s, and my function, as a priest, is to lead our prayer to God. Facing “ad orientem,” that is, east, facing Christ, is a noble way of praying with the congregation. [Do I hear an "Amen!"?] I wish for all of us to understand that this is not about exploring ways of prayer that are “better” than another form of prayer; rather, we must see this as an expression of the same prayer. Our Holy Father expressed the same sentiment about the new and the old rites, i.e., the ordinary and extraordinary forms of the Roman Rite. Both belong to the same family. Likewise, praying “ad orientem” belongs to the same family. We belong to one Church with various expressions of prayer.
I invite you attend the noon Mass on Corpus Christi not because something unique is happening, but because you want to join me in prayer for the parish. It is, indeed, my prayer for all of us to continue to seek to become closer to God. Join me and the parish in giving thanks to God for the many blessings He bestows upon us.
If you would like more information or have any questions about the liturgy at Blessed Sacrament Church, please contact my associate Jesson Mata at 206-732-7343 or jmata@bspwa.org.
Fr. Daniel Syverstad, O.P.
Official WDTPRS kudos to Fr. Syverstad!
Coat of Arms by D Burkart
emmatag1126 on Thoughts about the collision of the Holy See and the SSPX. Wherein Fr. Z rants.: “Also, the Declaration said that we can be saved only through the Roman Catholic Church, which unfortunately leaves out my…” on Thoughts about the collision of the Holy See and the SSPX. Wherein Fr. Z rants.: “I just wanted to say how much I appreciate your charity and well-worded wishes/prayers for hearts to change. Whenever I’m…”
on ROME 26/5– Day 52: lace imitates God’s beauty enlaced in flowers: “Fr. Z: It wasn’t until I started reading your writings a few years back that I realized how important vestments…” on ROME 26/5– Day 52: lace imitates God’s beauty enlaced in flowers: “Speaking of age, I think I am lucky not to be in my teens or even early twenties right now.…”
on ROME 26/5– Day 52: lace imitates God’s beauty enlaced in flowers: “The “seriously cool APP” Father Z is referring to is the Ava Maria Clock which if you have not downloaded…”
on ROME 26/5– Day 53: Persevere!: “Black to move and mate in 4 1) … Qd1+ 2) RxQd1 (or Kh2) RxRd1+ 3) Kh2 (forced) Be5+ 4)…”
on ROME 26/5– Day 52: lace imitates God’s beauty enlaced in flowers: “@Charivari Rob: How about calling it the Old Chestnut Award? It will probably only be slightly less feared than the…”
A Daily Prayer for Priests
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