In an effort to encourage Catholics to pray for religious freedom Saint Benedict Press and TAN Books are offering Saint Michael the Archangel prayer cards FREE to parishes while supplies last.
Please see press release for more details:
https://tanbooks.benedictpress.com/index.php/page/shop:prayercards
Hey New Yorkers, and anyone nearby, mark your calendar. The Catholic Artists Society will have an evening of recollection for artists and media professionals on Thursday, March 1st at 7pm at the Church of St. Vincent de Paul, 123 W. 23rd Street (between 6th and 7th Avenues) in New York City.
Father Gerald Murray, the parish’s pastor and outstanding priest and good friend of many years, will offer a meditation on themes related to the work and spiritual life of the artist. There will be opportunity for confession and silent adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, followed by Solemn Benediction and a reception afterwards.
An invitation with more details will follow soon.
Of special interest to artists – The Church of St. Vincent de Paul is an architectural gem, with a 19th century interior designed in the classical style by Henry Englebert, and a facade added by Anthony Depace in 1939. The interior boasts many beautiful works of art, including 10 Tiffany stained-glass windows. The church has a long connection with the city’s Francophone community, and was the venue for the 1952 marriage of Edith Piaf to Jacques Pills, in which Marlene Dietrich acted as matron of honor.
We have probably all seen an email or blog post with some funny but wrong answers kids have offered on tests. One of the most famous is this:
Recently was sent a few that I have not seen before, including this one.
This answer left the teach a bit concerned about the mother’s influence on her child.
As it turns out the child was drawing a picture of her mother with a snow shovel at her workplace Home Depot.
The moral of the story is that we should be careful about being too literal (as in the first example) and remember that appearance can be deceiving (as in the second).
This could also be an object lesson about how to apply canon law.
From a readerette:
Father,
Back before the new translation was implemented, I talked to my six year old son about the changes and what the new words meant. Since, then, it hasn’t come up again until today.
We were in the car and my kids were looking through their Holy Trinity Missals. My four year old daughter asked, “Mommy, did the Devil disobey God AND Jesus?” My son replied, “Yes, Bella, because Jesus is consubstantial with the Father. That means they’re the same!”
If a six year old can hear a word and definition and months later bring it up explaining it in his own words, I think most adults should be able to learn it as well.
Ex ore infantium…
“But Father! But Father!”, I can hear some readers saying. “That boy is a heretic! He said the Father and the Son are ‘the same’! ‘The same’! Get it? HERESY! He is a Sabellianist! Father, you should apply can. 915 now that he is proven to be a manifest heretic and – since all six year olds are by definition obstinate – deny him First Holy Communion!”
Let’s give the six-year old a pass on this one and assume that, in all good will, he meant what “consubstantial” conveys, okay? I am pretty sure that, in using “consubstantial”, he gets that the Father and the Son are ‘the same’ in the sense that they are both eternal God, of the same divine substance, etc., but they are different divine Persons and not just different modes of being God.
In any event, Junior were a Sabellianist, he would still have done better than many theologians, including any who might teach at a Jesuit university and who were dressed down by the USCCB’s committee on doctrine for opening the door to modalism when writing about the Trinity.
Since I regularly listen to Lauds sung by the Benedictine Monks at Norcia (and, I am glad to say, they may be correcting a tendency to go flat when singing psalms) I will happily from gratitude for what they do, and in reciprocity for what they give daily to me, advertise their new video about their way of life: Quaerere Deum… To Seek God.
From their Blog:
Eight years ago, our close friends, Tom Kolenberg and Eric Griffin, produced our first short video which gave a glimpse into our life. The video was an immediate success. But within a short time, we realized that a new video would be necessary which could illustrate the tremendous growth of the community and in a longer format, depict more aspects of our daily life.
Inspired by the full length documentary of Carthusian life, “Into Great Silence” we sought to produce a medium length film of high quality which would expose those far away from us to the inner workings of our life. Thus the idea of “Quaerere Deum” was born. The title comes from the first task of all monks, To Seek God, as described by the Rule of St Benedict
We especially want to thank Peter Hayden, brother of our Br. Evagrius, who gave of his time and talent to produce this wonderful film. May God continue to bless him and the work he does, as well as all of our friends who watch this video. Without further ado, we present to you “Quaerere Deum”.
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If Pres. Obama has his way, this will coming to a neighborhood near you.
From the Beeb:
China to overhaul ‘threatening’ one-child slogans
By Viv Marsh
BBC NewsChina is to overhaul the sometimes threatening slogans used to enforce its one-child policy, the authorities have announced.
Details of the project were published in the Chinese communist party newspaper, the People’s Daily. [Which I believe also runs the New York Times.]
State media blamed local officials for coming up with phrases such as, “If you don’t get sterilised, your house will be demolished“. [So, it’s a little heavy-handed. James Carney would probably try to distant the White House from this one.]
They said they would be replaced by friendlier expressions. [Like… “Change!” and “Free Reproductive Services For All!” “It’s a Right!”]
But they insisted that the one-child policy itself would not change. [As a matter of fact, it will soon be tested in that country whose debt the Chinese own.]
The Chinese Communist Party has long appreciated the value of the concise, direct political slogan, but in matters of family planning, street banners and wall posters are frequently seen as lacking tactfulness and taste.
‘Kill your family‘ [It has the advantage of being brisk.]
Research by China’s National Population and Family Planning Commission, [Hey! Wait! Isn’t Pres. Obama’s science adviser John Holdren?] published in the People’s Daily, concluded that a quarter of slogans posted in furtherance of its policies had been crude and harsh in the past. It described some as spine-chilling.
Among the examples it cited were, “Kill all your family if you don’t follow the rule” and, “If you escape (sterilisation), we’ll hunt you down; if you want to hang yourself, we’ll give you the rope“. [Not as snappy, but … memorable!]
The research said milder expressions should be used to “avoid offending the public and stoking social tensions”. [Easier to sell that one in the US.]
For the past three decades, most Chinese couples in urban areas have been limited to having a single child.
Implementing the law has been hugely controversial, and has frequently involved sterilisation and even forced termination.
The one-child policy has also been blamed for causing a gender imbalance, with families eager to have male children and selectively aborting girls. [Remember! Reproductive services are your RIGHT!]
The People’s Daily said future propaganda would address this issue, and suggested the slogan: “Caring for the girl means caring for the future of the nation.” [Yahhhh…. that’s work.]
Upbeat slogans were also mooted to prevent birth defects. The paper said one new slogan would be: “Please get rid of the alcohol and cigarettes before you plan to be a father”.
A more friendly One Child Policy!
In a straight line from Epicurus to Machiavelli to Descartes to Hobbes to Rousseau to Mill to Darwin to Sanger to your front door….
Killing babies no different from abortion, experts say
Parents should be allowed to have their newborn babies killed because they are “morally irrelevant” and ending their lives is no different to abortion, a group of medical ethicists linked to Oxford University has argued.
By Stephen Adams, Medical Correspondent1:38PM GMT 29 Feb 2012
The article, published in the Journal of Medical Ethics, says newborn babies are not “actual persons” and do not have a “moral right to life”. The academics also argue that parents should be able to have their baby killed if it turns out to be disabled when it is born.
The journal’s editor, Prof Julian Savulescu, director of the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, said the article’s authors had received death threats since publishing the article. He said those who made abusive and threatening posts about the study were “fanatics opposed to the very values of a liberal society”. [Those are the values of a “liberal society”. Okay. Now we know. Is Pres. Obama a member of that Ethics group? He advocated infanticide as a state senator.]
The article, entitled “After-birth abortion: Why should the baby live?”, was written by two of Prof Savulescu’s former associates, Alberto Giubilini and Francesca Minerva. [Interesting. A Romanian and two Italians. Notice how they redefined the term “infanticide” as “post-birth abortion”.]
They argued: “The moral status of an infant is equivalent to that of a fetus in the sense that both lack those properties that justify the attribution of a right to life to an individual.” [And they get to decide that. They decide who is worthy of life.]
Rather than being “actual persons”, newborns were “potential persons”. They explained: “Both a fetus and a newborn certainly are human beings and potential persons, but neither is a ‘person’ in the sense of ‘subject of a moral right to life’.
And this will obviously apply to the injured or elderly… or people with inconvenient ideas.
If you don’t think this is where Obamacare and the HHS mandate and the left and the political arm in the party of death are taking us… then you are a fool.
A good sermon on 5 February 2012 by Fr. Sammie Maletta at St. John the Evangelist Parish in St. John, Indiana.
You will not regret the 11 minutes you spend.
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Good job, Father.
WDTPRS kudos.
I don’t have even the slightest doubt that the Brazilian priest is a good fellow, diligent in his pastoral duties, and well-meaning.
But priests shouldn’t do this in church. Really shouldn’t do this during Mass.
This was, apparently, during a Mass in Brasilia.
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Fr Joachim Andrade, SVD, performed this Indian dance at the opening Mass of the penultimate day of the Seminar for Consecrated Religious Life, sponsored by the Conference of Religious of Brazil. Fr. Andrade is the Superior of the SVD Province of South Brazil.
C’mon, Padre.
I can understand wanting to affirm one’s culture, even in a sound sense of inculturation – that fascinating interaction between the Church and the world – but…. damn.
It is not that this is silly. These cultural things aren’t silly, even if they are foreign to us.
But churches are consecrated places, and priests are consecrated persons, and Mass is not the place for these things.
What I hope might result is a thoughtful discussion of inculturation.
I recently received a couple instructional DVDs produced by the canons at St. John Cantius in Chicago and I have had a chance to look at “Sacred Rites and Ceremonies of the Roman Rite, featuring the use of the 1962 Liturgical Books of Blessed John XXIII“, meaning of course, the Liber Usualis (BUY), 
Rituale Romanum (BUY) and Missale Romanum (BUY). The canons also have great online resources.
This DVD in is their online store.
The DVD includes instructions for doing, in the traditional form, Baptism of an Infant, Penance, Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, Solemn Vespers of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Requiem Missa Cantata with Absolution over the Catafalque.
There isn’t anything particularly slick about these videos. They are just … useful. They would help a priest who doesn’t have much experience with the older forms to learn what to do. That’s enough! This is the sort of thing priests can do in parishes.
Too bad there wasn’t a section on performing a marriage and Mass (with its variants).
In the parts on baptism and penance, the priest instructor/narrator essentially reads to the camera from a text with occasional appropriate stills or video clips to illustrate his points, texts popping up on the video from time to time. Some useful pointers are added, such as, during the part on hearing confessions in the older form, the good comment that while priests can hear the confessions of men anywhere they should hear the confessions of women only in a confessional and that this is the only sacrament the priest administers while sitting, because he is also in the role of a judge. There was a rather amusing continuity in that section: in describing how, after absolution, the penitent can go to perform HIS penance, the camera follows a nice young lady with a chapel view to a pew. Opps.
In the part about the Requiem Missa Cantata, with absolution of the catafalque, you basically watch a Mass. There is a a little sermon. The most interesting part starts at about 57 minutes, when the priest goes to the sedilia and changes from the chasuble to the cope and then continues with the absolution.
A choir director would find this section in case he has to learn how to sing for a Mass like this.
The baptism video starts with the blessing of water from the Roman Ritual.
It shows how to get everything ready beforehand. (Don’t forget the bread and lemon!)
It makes good recommendations about more solemn baptisms.
It speaks of a deacon doing a baptism with the pastor’s permission. There is an instruction about sponsors.
There is cute and occasionally unhappy baby.
A Benediction service is filmed. There are text overs. You can see clearly what is done. Spectacular music. beautiful bells, by the way.
The section on Vespers could be very helpful for a priest and choir, with a group of lay people, trying to build up this beautiful example of our liturgical worship. Vespers is simply filmed.
If you have your book to follow, the Liber Usualis, you can then watch the movements in the sanctuary to know what to do and when, make your notes and then recreate the service. What I would NOT recreate is the pace of their chanting of the psalms, etc. Far to slow. But that is a detail. The video is still useful
Coat of Arms by D Burkart
EAW on Continue the Rome shot posts? I dunno.: “Yes, please continue the Rome shot posts! They have become one of the things I always look forward to. TC…”
on Continue the Rome shot posts? I dunno.: “Please keep posting Rome photos! I don’t know where I should go to find them if you were to stop!…”
on Continue the Rome shot posts? I dunno.: “Fr. Z, Please do continue the Rome posts. It’s like a little escape every day. Rome is our mother, she…”
on Continue the Rome shot posts? I dunno.: “I’ve only been to Rome three times, once as a seminarian lucky enough to be accompanying my Cardinal during his…”
on 10 November – St Andrew Avellino (Vetus Ordo). Wherein Fr. Z rants.: “My mom gave me this prayer when I was living alone during college and in the years after graduation. Please…” on Continue the Rome shot posts? I dunno.: “Archbishop Broglio led a retreat at my seminary once. He was almost universally liked by the seminarians. There are many…”
on Continue the Rome shot posts? I dunno.: “in the illo, curley’s helmet: i’d buy one if it came in my size. i for one love the Rome…”
A Daily Prayer for Priests
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