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{]:¬)

“I am satisfied so long as I keep my books closed”

Posted on 5 July 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From the estimable Laudator:

By Yuan Mei (1716–1797), tr. J.D.Schmidt:

I am satisfied so long as I keep my books closed,
But I start to worry, when I open their covers.
The books are long, but the day is short;
I feel like an ant contemplating a mountain.
I work by candlelight until the morning,
But do I remember a tenth of what I read?
I’m terribly worried that a millennium from now,
There’ll be many more books (where will it all end?).
I would like to transform into a fairy or god,
Or ask old heaven for some additional years.
I don’t desire to feast on jade or nectar,
Nor do I wish to wander Penglai’s fairy realms.
In the human world, wherever there are words,
I want to finish reading them (and that’s all I want!)

A distinction is made about being studious and being “curious”, as in the sin curiositas.

Posted in Just Too Cool | Tagged books, curiositas, Yuan Mei
12 Comments

NOTE TO PRIESTS – (with update)

Posted on 5 July 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

UPDATE 5 July:

It’s not too late. We will close registration on 12 July.

We have worked out the pricing. I’ll send emails to those of you who wrote to me. If you don’t hear anything, contact me again.

I have had some nice emails from interested priests. Hopefully they can work out subs!

Also, one man has signaled that he is flying into MSP airport evening of Sunday 22 July and will drive up. I post this for the sake of, perhaps, getting some carpooling arranged.

_______

For many years I have belonged to a group of priests who gather every summer for some R&R.

This year we are again meeting on the North Shore of Lake Superior in Minnesota, Sunday 22 July (arrival) – Thursday 26 July.

We have a few open spots for priests to join us this year.

Last year, when I advertised this, two priest (one a well-known blogger) were able to join us. I think they had a good time and we certainly enjoyed their company.

The group invites a speaker to address a topic. We have had some pretty distinguished guests over the years, including His Eminence Francis Card. Arinze, Fr. Thomas Dubay, etc. Last year we invited Rabbi David Dalin to speak about Pius XII, and relations of the Church and Jews. This will be the group’s 27th annual meeting. We will be exploring as one topic: Islam. Also, there could be a talk on how to use the Sacra Penitenzieria Apostolica in Rome and have recourse to them, the Process of the Causes of Saints, and New Media.

This is an outstanding group of priests. We have several members who are now bishops (though they can’t participate too much, a couple dropped in last year for a day). Members of our group can gain plenary indulgences on certain feasts, conceded by the Apostolic Penitentiary. There are lots of outdoor things to do during meet-up, which is at a good resort we have used before (e.g, hiking, kayaking, golf, etc.). Liturgy of the Hours is said together in English in the morning and afternoon, concelebrated Novus Ordo in Latin in the morning (or on your own), and opportunity for the Extraordinary Form for those who prefer. I did almost all the cooking last year, though there is a good restaurant. I will probably do a lot of the cooking this year as well (to keep the expenses down).

If any Catholic priests in good standing would like to join us, please drop me a line using the CONTACT link under the banner at the top of this blog or HERE. Just priests please. Please put: “NOTE TO PRIESTS” in the email subject line so I don’t miss your note.

The closest airport is Duluth. There may car “pool” opportunities from Minneapolis depending on your point of origin and time of arrival.

UPDATE 29 June 1635 GMT:

I have gotten some nibbles from around the country. This could be pretty interesting!

UPDATE 2 July:

We have worked out some pricing. I’ll send emails to those of you who wrote to me. If you don’t hear anything, contact me again.

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
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Revision of English “Liturgy of the Hours” to begin

Posted on 5 July 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I noticed this in the newsletter of the USCCB’s Committee for Divine Worship:

Liturgy of the Hours

Among the many liturgical books affected by the implementation of the Roman Missal, Third Edition, none has generated more questions or interest than the Liturgy of the Hours. Numerous inquiries from clergy and religious have prompted the Committee on Divine Worship to begin to develop a plan to produce a revised edition of the Liturgy of the Hours (and related texts such as the one–volume Christian Prayer). This revision would incorporate updated and already–approved translations of many elements, including the Revised Grail Psalms and the orations of the Roman Missal, Third Edition, as well as new additions to the Proper of Saints, some of which still need to be translated and approved. The Committee reviewed the current state of each element of the text, including the Psalter, the orations, antiphons, and Scripture readings, to determine which elements can remain intact, which elements require replacement with updated texts, and which elements require retranslation. The International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL) has been consulted regarding its role in producing draft translations of certain elements, including an expanded collection of proper antiphons for the Gospel canticles for Sundays and solemnities, which were added to the Liturgia Horarum, editio typica altera, published between 1985 and 1987. The Committee hopes to present a proposed scope of work to the body of Bishops for their approval in November 2012, and then work can commence to assemble the necessary elements. At this time there is no estimated timeline for this project.

Of course, clerics and religious of the Latin Church obliged to the Office could simply follow what the Second Vatican Council said and just use Latin.

Posted in Liturgy Science Theatre 3000 | Tagged ICEL, Liturgiam authenticam, liturgy, Liturgy of the Hours, prayer, translation, USCCB, worship
54 Comments

Twisted Ovaries

Posted on 5 July 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

We can do many things. We will be able to do even more.

But we must start asking in earnest: Ought we do may of the things we can?

From the Daily Telegraph:

Women could delay the menopause indefinitely with ovary transplant: doctors
Women could remain fertile indefinitely after successful ovarian transplants lead to births and delay the menopause, doctors have told a conference.

A technique to remove pieces of ovary, store it for decades and then replace it with delicate surgery could effectively put a woman’s menopause ‘on ice’, doctors said. [Who comes up with this stuff?]
The only thing preventing them from having babies into their old age would be their physical ability to carry a pregnancy, they said. [Because we know better than God how the timing of our lives should run.]
The controversial notion [Get this…] would allow career women peace of mind with a fertility insurance policy so they can find a partner, settle down and become financially secure before starting a family. [GRRRR… I know that people are growing up later and later. I know that women were lied to by the Betty Friedan’s of the world, and are still being lied to by the entertainment industry and academia. I also know that the distortion of sexual differences and roles have resulted in an even greater confusion about identity and has crippled our culture at the level of our culture’s future (our youth). But… that said… that just seems damn selfish, to me. ME ME ME… I… I… I…]
By delaying the menopause they could also avoid the increased risk of osteoporosis and heart disease that come with the end of their fertile life but may raise the risk of breast and womb cancer. [And that is how they sell the idea, right? I remember seeing contraceptive hormone patch commercials on TV which added the enticing news about how beautiful they make your skin… evil jerks.]
A conference heard how 28 babies have been born worldwide to patients who either had their own ovarian tissue removed before treatment that would have left them infertile and replaced afterwards or twins where one donated tissue to the other. [GREAT! Another new market! Let’s sell body parts and sell fertility! If there are now altruistic donations, a market will follow. No?]

[…]

There’s a lot more.

I am all for treatments that might help or alleviate suffering from osteoporosis, and so forth. But this seems to me like something very dangerous.

I once read a book that scared the stuffing out of me: Frank Herbert’s The White Plague. A madman engineers a disease which kills only women. Society, obviously, goes to pieces. This is in part because women civilize men. Young women need to learn to civilize young men. However, when young women begin to behave as coarsely as men will tend to when they have only male company, that civilizing effect is removed. In their false freedom from what feminists claim is the oppression of cultural conditioning, they endanger themselves even more. In a head to head conflict with men in coarseness or force, women will lose and men can walk away.

This new scientific development looks like it is being sold as a freedom from nature and therefore from roles. Everyone loses when this agenda is pursued.

UPDATE:

The Daily Mail has an editorial on the matter HERE.

Posted in TEOTWAWKI, The Drill, The future and our choices | Tagged fertility, ovaries, TEOTWAWKI
34 Comments

All Alone in the Night

Posted on 5 July 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

A reader alerted me to this video, which is way too cool. Time-lapse video taken from the International Space Station when on the night-side of our little blue marble.

[wp_youtube]FG0fTKAqZ5g[/wp_youtube]

Posted in Just Too Cool, Look! Up in the sky! | Tagged aurora, International Space Station, ISS
4 Comments

“The things of the spirit come first”

Posted on 5 July 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From Bill Bennett’s American Patriot’s Almanac we have this entry for today, 5 July:

“The things of the spirit come first”

On July 5, 1926, in a speech in Philadelphia commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, President Calvin Coolidge reminded Americans that “in its main features the Declaration of Independence is a great spiritual document.”

[COOLIDGE SAID:]

Our forefathers came to certain conclusions and decided upon certain courses of action which have been a great blessing to the world. . . . They were a people who came under the influence of a great spiritual development and acquired a great moral power. No other theory is adequate to explain or comprehend the Declaration of Independence. It is the product of the spiritual insight of the people. We live in an age of science and of abounding accumulation of material things. These did not create our Declaration. Our Declaration created them. The things of the spirit come first. Unless we cling to that, all our material prosperity, overwhelming though it may appear, will turn to a barren scepter in our grasp. If we are to maintain the great heritage which has been bequeathed to us, we must be like-minded as the fathers who created it. We must not sink into a pagan materialism. We must cultivate the reverence which they had for the things that are holy. We must follow the spiritual and moral leadership which they showed. We must keep replenished, that they may glow with a more compelling flame, the altar fires before which they worshiped.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Just Too Cool, Our Catholic Identity, The future and our choices | Tagged Bill Bennett, Calvin Coolidge, Declaration of Independence
9 Comments

Archbishop Chaput’s sermon for the closing of the Fortnight for Freedom

Posted on 5 July 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

On 4 July, Most Rev. Charles Chaput delivered the sermon for a Mass to close the Fortnight For Freedom.

Posted in SESSIUNCULA | Tagged 1st Amendment, anti-catholicism, Archbp. Chaput, Fortnight for Freedom, Pres. Obama, religious liberty
7 Comments

Request for help from readers: LCWR “state of the question”

Posted on 5 July 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I have received several requests for a succinct summary of what has transpired between the Holy See and the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR – a subsidiary of the Magisterium of Nuns).

It would be good to have such a summary in the form of a brief factual bullet-pointed time line.

Readers: Is there one? And, if not, shall one be created?

Posted in Magisterium of Nuns |
5 Comments

The Nuns On The Bus went ’round and ’round – with the help of George Soros group!

Posted on 5 July 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Quite a while ago now I posted an entry entitled Group funded by George Soros poised to attack US Bishops for the “Fortnight for Freedom”.

It seems that Soros was also involved with the Nuns On The Bus. They were able to go ’round and ’round in their polluting bus because one of Soros’s tentacles backed them.

The Nuns On The Bus (NOTB) went ’round and ’round with a political agenda – attacking Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) under the usual left-winger mask of concern for the poor.

The best source for this is the blog Laetificat, which was an early and thorough reporter on the Nuns On The Bus.

There are various pieces to this. Look to Laetificat for more.

Here is something interesting. Embedded with the NOTB was one Casey Schoeneberger who did their media relations. She works for the lobby Faith In Public Life and before that with NETWORK. As Laetificat points out:

As Sr Mary Ann Walsh of the USCCB quoted from this page that has all the details, they are “a group founded with help from a pro-abortion group long directed by John Podesta called the Center for American Progress. . . (CAP); like the CAP it has received funding . . . from billionaire atheist George Soros. . . . ”

And you will remember the concerns of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith that members of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR – a subsidiary of the Magisterium of Nuns) not be involved with NETWORK Lobby.

Laetificat also goes into the tall brush looking for FIPL’s connections. Among them are ACORN and the Industrial Areas Foundation (i.e., Saul Alinksy).

On a different theme but still related to the NOTB, Laetificat also posted this:

On June 27th, Sr Simone [Campbell of NOTB and director of NETWORK] was interviewed by a reporter for Bill Moyers’ PBS show. Her reponse to “Tell us about your own personal journey. Who are your greatest influences?” does not mention Jesus, or any Catholic leader. Her response to “What does being Catholic mean to you?” has only vaguely to do with Catholicism, but entails a rejection of the miracle of the loaves and fishes, in favor of a materialist interpretation of the story that George Soros would find entirely satisfying.

Fredericks: What does being Catholic mean to you?

Sister Simone: To me it’s that amazing history of spiritual practice, social engagement, witnessing to the fact that Jesus lives in our world now and says that there is enough if we share. The miracle of the loaves and fishes — one of the accounts says 5,000 men ate. Well, the reason they only counted the men was the women and children knew it was the women who had brought all the food! Only the guys thought it was a miracle, the women knew it was about breaking bread and sharing it. This isn’t biblical — this is just my interpretation of it, but to me the miracle was sharing.

Yikes. She’s right that isn’t Biblical. Neither is it Catholic.