As the U.S. bishops prepare to meet in their autumn assembly, I represent this poll (originally HERE):
The bishops of England and Wales did this.
You can vote even if you are not registered here. Please give your reasons in the combox below, respecting always the people who make arguments other than your own.
From a reader:
The GIRM instructs that during mass no genuflections are to be made toward the tabernacle for the priest, the deacon and the ministers.
Are the ministers the altar boys, or just the instituted lector and the acolyte? Is it possible, or permissible to genuflect during mass when crossing the tabernacle for the altar boys like in the Vetus Ordo (this particular tabernacle was not moved, it still is on the main altar in the middle of the apse)? The parish priest is very supportive, and is in favor of this change. We both think this would be a good starting point for the “mutual enrichment” of the to forms of the Latin Rite.
I have written about this HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE and etc.
Yes, I think we have to consider the altar boys to be included in the “ministers” at the altar.
That said, and I’ll go out on a limb now, even though I am a Say The Black and Do The Red sort of guy, I’m all for starting up a contrary custom in accord with canons 25 and 26. After 30 years, we’ll have a legal custom in force.
When I was in my U.S seminary hell-hole, we were instructed on how to establish contra legem custom. We weren’t instructed in this for the sake of detail or mere knowledge. The instruction was for the sake of providing a canonical basis for abuses (e.g., altar girls – this was before the disastrously bad interpretation of canon 230 of the 1983 Code).
Progressivists consistently broke the law concerning, for example, Communion in the hand and females serving in the sanctuary. They did so long-enough that Rome fecklessly confirmed their abuses. Those were bad years.
Now we must work to bring ourselves back into continuity.
It is absurd that ministers should entirely ignore the Blessed Sacrament in the tabernacle in the sanctuary during Mass. Ab-SURD!
Yes, we know the arguments: In our Eucharistic celebration the assembly should be mindful of the altar and then the Host which will be on the altar after the consecration. Yes, I know that Easterners bow with just as much reverence as Latins.
I say genuflect. The Blessed Sacrament is RIGHT THERE! People see that the tabernacle containing the Blessed Sacrament, with presence lamp and/or veil, is RIGHT THERE. If we obviously diminish our gestures of adoration in front of the eyes of a congregation, the message they will imbibe over time is that we don’t pay attention to the presence of Christ in the tabernacle, that perhaps the Eucharist isn’t all that important after all, that a sanctuary, indeed even the whole church, isn’t a sacred space, that we don’t have to bend the knee to God….
Moreover, we have now, side by side, both the Novus Ordo and the Usus Antiquior. The Holy Father, in establishing juridically that the Roman Rite has two forms, also spoke of a “mutual enrichment” of the one and the other. I usually speak and write in terms of a “gravitational pull”. This is an instance in which the traditional practice of the Usus Antiquior, the older form of Holy Mass with its genuflections, must have all the gravity pulling on the Novus Ordo.
So… ubi maior, minor cessat.
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Here’s a Year of Faith approach… here’s a New Evangelization project.
This, instead of all the blather, is how it is done.
From a reader I have known for many years:
Your recent post brought to mind an experience of many years ago.
A priest became pastor of a smaller rural parish, of approximately 300 registered families. The first Sunday of Advent, he announced to the parish that he wanted no Christmas presents from the parish that year – no gifts of money, or food, or gift certificates. Instead, the present he wanted from his new parish was for every member of the parish to go to confession during Advent.
To that end, he would add times for confessions during the week, bring in outside priests, and make the sacrament as available as possible.
To his surprise, the parish took him up on his offer.
He said that, during the four weeks of Advent, he initially tried keeping track of the numbers of penitents, but was only able to keep track of the numbers of those who had not been to confession in more than 20 years – nearly 200, in his small parish! Many of the penitents told him that the reason they had been away is because no priest had told them they should go, or even invited them to go. Because of one priest’s invitation, an entire small town grew in grace through the sacrament of confession.
What a fantastic story.
If he encountered in a rural parish 200 people who had not been to confession in 20 years, imagine what numbers there must be in urban parishes.
Everyone in the NYC area (if you have power and you can read this) will want to know about this event:
Fr. John Berg, FSSP, Superior General of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, will celebrate a Solemn Mass for the Feast of St. Frances Cabrini on Tuesday, November 13th, at 6 PM at the Church of the Holy Innocents in Manhattan. After the Mass, Fr. Berg will make a presentation about the FSSP and answer questions in the Church Hall. There will be a reception with refreshments following the presentation.
Holy Innocents in Manhattan… great place… great location… pretty much dead… revived… reviving….
This is New Evangelization.
The last couple weeks have been pretty hard. Lots of bad news.
Do you have some good new for everyone?
I heard a song today by one Matthew West that got me thinking about the need to revive the practice of regular sacramental confession.
Lyrics HERE
[wp_youtube]DR7KfFfse3k[/wp_youtube]
In part….
[…]
Breathe in deep
Feel your heart still breathing
Let’s go see the reason you’re alive
Oh, you are here
and love is up to something
So take your fear
and leave it all behindThis is the story of your life
You decide
How the rest is gonna read
This is your chance between the lines
To redefine what kind of legacy you leave
This is the story of your life
And it’s a story worth telling[…]
Alas, but thank God, telling the story of our life includes the confession of our sins to the priest.
The matter and form of the Sacrament of Penance, Reconciliation, are the telling of our mortal sins in kind and number and the formula of absolution spoken by the priest.
This is the normal means Christ Himself intended for the post-baptismal forgiveness of our sins and our reconciliation with God, Church, neighbor… ourselves. With absolution we obtain a clean slate. We have the memory of the sins and the obligation to make reparations and do penance, but we are again clean. Our sins are part of the “story worth telling” back to Christ, who, knowing them already, receives them and through the merits of His Sacrifice, removes their stain from our souls forever.
Don’t be afraid.
There is no sin we little mortals can commit that is so bad that God’s mighty love and overflowing mercy will not forgive and heal. But you have to do it. You have to seek this mercy.
The New Evangelization requires effort from every one of us who is aware of our Catholic identity to do what we can, according to our state in life, to help revive the Sacrament of Penance.
For decades now, preaching and teaching on the Four Last Things and the need for Confession has been neglected… to our peril.
Let us foster a purification of our souls through thorough, unflinching examination of conscience and complete, sincere sacramental confessions.
Go to confession. Talk about confession.
Require your parish priests to hear confessions if they don’t.
If they don’t, REQUIRE THEM TO.
Pressure, cajole, plead, threaten, urge, invite, beg, prompt, drag by the ear.
Don’t let up on them.
From a reader from back on 11/11/11:
I thought that you and your readers might find this legend of Satan, St. Martin of Tours, and two exquisitely long palindromes, to be of interest particularly on this palindromic day of 11/11/11.
From The Book of Days, Vol. II, R. Chambers, ed., W. & R. Chambers, Ltd., London & Edinburgh, 1864, p. 568:
“Martin, having occasion to visit Rome, set out to perform the journey thither on foot. Satan, meeting him on the way, taunted the holy man for not using a conveyance more suitable to a bishop. In an instant the saint changed the Old Serpent into a mule, and jumping on its back, trotted comfortably along. Whenever the transformed demon slackened pace, Martin, by making the sign of the cross, urged it to full speed. At last, Satan, utterly defeated, exclaimed:
‘Signa te signa: temere me tangis et angis:
Roma tibi subito motibus ibit amor.’
In England, there is a new Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury.
In the USA, in the Episcopal Church, I read thanks to a link sent by a priest friend, that there is a new Episcopal Bishop in the Diocese of Eau Claire, WI! HERE
I noted in that article that:
Fr. Lambert succeeds the Rt. Rev. Edwin Leidel who served as provisional bishop following the translation of the diocese’s fifth bishop, the Rt. Rev. Keith Whitmore as assistant Bishop of Atlanta in 2008
The diocesan profile said the “ideal candidate” for the half time position would be able to “support himself or herself through a part-time position, provide vision for new ways of working in the Episcopal Church, and an energetic spirituality that will nurture the wide variety of people to whom we minister.”
The diocese has a baptized membership of 2200 in 21 congregations served by 15 priests, 12 deacons and 7 active retired clergy. Its 2012 budget is $223,632.
Again, I call for the Anglicans/Episcopalians to issue Romanorum coetibus.
Just look how well conforming your message to the wisdom of this world has worked for them?
They have some space and readers of the National catholic Fishwrap and The Tablet, Call To Action, the LCWR need a safe-haven, a warm, welcoming, nurturing environment in which they can maintain their most cherished traditions. It’s a win-win scenario!
Coat of Arms by D Burkart
Orual on 10 November – St Andrew Avellino (Vetus Ordo). Wherein Fr. Z rants.: “One of my elderly former pastors fell in his home and laid there for 3 days before anyone came to…”
on 10 November – St Andrew Avellino (Vetus Ordo). Wherein Fr. Z rants.: “Many priests live alone, with no one to notice if they fail to rise, suffer a fall, or become suddenly…”
on 10 November – St Andrew Avellino (Vetus Ordo). Wherein Fr. Z rants.: “Father, in case you haven’t already considered this, an iPhone might help you or another priest in that situation. “…”
on 10 November – St Andrew Avellino (Vetus Ordo). Wherein Fr. Z rants.: “his Theatines maintain a minor seminary in the neighborhood under his patronage. i drove by it on the way to…”
on WDTPRS – 9 November: Feast of the Dedication of St. John Lateran, Rome’s Cathedral: “Great stuff Fr Z….. are the doors to St John Lateran originally the doors from the Roman Curia in the…”
on 10 November – St Andrew Avellino (Vetus Ordo). Wherein Fr. Z rants.: “As the demographic collapse accelerates, priests may find it prudent to live together in a central location with their deanery.…”
on Some notes for your Sunday Mass in the Vetus and the Novus Ordo: “This is the best explanation I have heard in my almost 50 years. I wish it was what was heard…”
on Some notes for your Sunday Mass in the Vetus and the Novus Ordo: “moon1234: We have to understand something about the Lord’s parables. The parable, or Hebrew mashal is an allegorical lesson of…”
A Daily Prayer for Priests
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