Milk and cookies piety

Posted on 11 August 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Once again from the blog of the USCCB Media office, Sr. Mary Ann Walsh has a nice piece.  This isn’t high theology, but it has the advantage of direct simplicity and an image which everyone can resonate with.

I was taken by the image of cookies.  I am not a fan of Oreos, but, as I have said at other times on this blog, my mother makes the finest chocolate chip cookies in the cosmos.

Motherhood and cookiedom… gotta be a connection.

Devotion to Mary: The Milk and Cookies of Catholicism

I got a great gift the other day – a woodcarving of a seated Madonna holding Jesus with one hand and admiring a piece of fruit – looks like an orange – with the other. It reminds me that I love the Blessed Virgin because she is a very human representation of holiness.  [What Sister might not know, is that the orange in some schools of Italian painting is a symbol of the resurrection.  Sometimes it is depicted as being peeled.]

This is a bit of homespun theology, but to me Mary is like the milk and cookies of Catholicism – she comforts and nurtures and is there with emotional support. She has exalted titles, such as Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception. She is patroness of the United States under that title. That’s good for a nation as powerful as the USA, but Mary also has titles which make her seem more accessible.  [Lately I have been invoking her as Mary, Queen of Priests.]

I like the title “Cause of Our Joy,” partially because it is lesser known. It is depicted as Mary with outstretched arms offering Jesus to the world. It was also the name of the Legion of Mary group I belonged to as a teenager. [Causa nostra laetitiae… from the Litany of Loreto if memory serves.]

Other titles have appeal at different times. When I am not sure what to do, I pray to Our Lady of Good Counsel. In times of crisis I pray the Memorare, which I associate with Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal. I go to Mary for human and spiritual assurance.  [After every Mass I pray the Memorare for a short list of bishops I either know, have been in any way involved with, or who are under fire. That list includes, btw, Archbp. Lefevbre, who surely needs our prayers in charity.]

I once made up a title. I prayed to Our Lady of the Press Conference before Pope Benedict’s election because I was in Rome, had to host a post-election media conference but didn’t know when it would be or which cardinals would be present or whose election we would herald. I like things more controlled, so I turned to Mary in desperation.

The image of Our Lady of Guadalupe caught my imagination when I was 10. I loved the account of the poor Indian Juan Diego who had to convince the local bishop that he had seen the Virgin. When Juan Diego told Mary the bishop wouldn’t believe she had appeared to him, she sent Juan Diego back to the doubter to show him an outpouring of roses on a snowy December morn. Clearly Mary would take the extra step for the little guy who needed help.

Being Irish, I have a fondness for Our Lady of Knock, who appeared with St. Joseph and St. John the Evangelist [Mary’s literally God-given adopted son!] on a church wall in Knock, Ireland more than a hundred years ago. Washington’s Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception is a majestic church filled with numerous oratories named after titles of the Virgin. The Our Lady of Knock oratory is aglow with Waterford crystal, humble Erin’s brilliant gift.

Devotions learned early stick with you. Pope Benedict XVI prayed at the shrine’s image of Our Lady of Altoetting [Where my mentor Card. Mayer was born and the image on his episcopal coat-of-arms.] when he visited the national shrine in 2008. It is a replica of the one that he visited as a child in his native Bavaria and where he left his cardinal’s ring after he became pope.

Marian devotion has led some people to wrongly accuse Catholics of adoring, rather than revering, Mary, though adoration is reserved to the savior. A parish priest once complained that our annual May procession to honor Mary exceeded our celebration of the Risen Christ at Easter.

Perhaps the affection reflects the emotional aura surrounding Mary, her embodiment of the best of all maternal characteristics. She is the consoler of young children with skinned knees [Which brings to mind what was for me the most powerful moment in Mel Gibson’s movie on the Passion of the Lord.  When Mary sees Christ fall under His Cross, she has a flashback of when he fell down as a child and rushes to Him.  Then in real time, the Lord explains to her from under His Cross, “Behold, I make all things new.”] and the wise counselor of older ones to do the right thing in the face of life’s challenges.

Mary is the milk and cookies of our theology and provides the comfort found in an Oreo, chocolate chip, ginger snap or Social Tea. And she’s just as accessible as the supermarket shelf.

And she ought to be just as common and regular in our daily lives.

If you are Catholic and you don’t have a Marian devotion, might I suggest that you give Our Lady some thought?

In the meantime, allow me to be manipulative!

Repeat after me…

Cookies… cookies…. cookies…

Milk and cookies piety

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Lighter fare | Tagged , ,
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Many thank to Plurkers!

Posted on 10 August 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

This comes from some fellow users of Plurk.

Many thank to Plurkers!

Sniff…

I am very grateful.  What a nice surprise!

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Opportunity has reached Endeavour!

Posted on 10 August 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

We’ve lost poor Spirit, but intrepid little Opportunity keeps motoring along.

NASA reports that Opportunity has after a 3 year portion of its already 8 year anabasis has crawled up to Endeavour crater, 14 miles in diameter.  We should be able to see older rocks there.

Here is a view of a portion of the crater’s rim.

Opportunity has reached Endeavour!

It is a good thing that Spirit and Opportunity were launched when they were and not after the last Presidential Election.

And don’t forget to buy some Zagnut bars to enjoy during the coverage!

QUAERITUR: Do you suppose after all that crawling, Opportunity would like some….

Mystic Monk Coffee?

Refresh your supply now!  Don’t forget that you can make iced coffee with Mystic Monk Coffee.

Opportunity has reached Endeavour!

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Bp. Coyne on what to do when priests don’t “Say the Black and Do the Red”.

Posted on 10 August 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Bp. Coyne on what to do when priests don't "Say the Black and Do the Red".A “Say the Black, Do the Red” sighting.

A few days ago I posted about an entry on the blog of H.E. Most Rev. Chris Coyne, auxiliary in Indianapolis.  I guess that that entry helped bring a lot of traffic to H.E.’s blog, which was part of my purpose.  Just as I gave him high supporting marks, I had hoped that you too would give him support.  Some people were less than supportive it seems.  There are those out there who think that just because the internet provides a fog of anonymity and distance, they can write less than kind comments.  That’s the way it goes.  I describe this blog as a fusion of the Baroque salon and the Wild West saloon.

In any event, Bp. Coyne posted some follow-up comments, imbued with both patience and commonsense, while being in no way timid.  I was taken by this paragraph.  My emphases and comments:

[5] I am also very concerned about some of the “unnecessary roughness” being heaped on the clergy collectively.  [Oh?  Are some people hard on clergy?  I remember the phrase “Sacerdos sacerdoti lupissimus!“] There are many priests and bishops out there who make every effort to celebrate the Church’s liturgy as the Church desires it to be celebrated.  They preside with reverence and dignity, they preach well, and they strive to make the liturgy not about them but about Christ.  We must encourage them in their work and their willingness to be humble enough to be a servant of the liturgy. [Do I hear an “Amen!”?] We should also thank them as often as we can.  [Bis!] In addition, I know of no bishop who is unwilling to address the need for better celebration of the Church’s liturgy within their diocese.  It is just very complicated.  A bishop can encourage his priests to “say the black and do the red,” to celebrate according to the Church’s rites, and to develop better preaching skills, he can hold all kinds of liturgical conferences and workshops for his priests, but the minute guys get back to their parishes, they can do what they want. [Welllll…. yes, of course, Your Excellency. If you say so.] In truly egregious situations of liturgical malpractice, the bishop will have to step in and do something, but the question is “what?” And that’s where it gets difficult especially in this time of fewer clergy to cover many parishes.  Some would say it is better to have a few truly good shepherds than to allow for the flock to be lead astray by the “hired hand.”  That’s all well and good until there is no one available to celebrate the sacraments in any form in the parish because a priest’s faculties have been suspended because he plays with the rubrics.  As you can see, it is a difficult balancing act.

That’s right, of course.  While we must not let the perfect be the enemy of the good, at the same time we shouldn’t simply let things slide.  It is a hard set of objectives to balance, given time, energy, numbers.

I thank God that we have good faithful bishops.  I thank God I am not one and never will be.  Two reasons why I will go to the wall for bishops I respect.

WDTPRS Kudos to Bp. Coyne.

He raises a very good point.  I imagine one or two of you will have an opinion.

Posted in Linking Back, Mail from priests, SESSIUNCULA | Tagged , ,
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Wonderful Collect for St. Lawrence

Posted on 10 August 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

St. Lawrence the deacon and martyr is beloved of the Romans. He has many churches in the City, which is a sign of how deeply he was venerated in centuries past.

Wonderful Collect for St. LawrenceToday in the traditional form of the Roman Rite we have a wonderful Collect:

Da nobis, quaesumus, omnipotens Deus:
vitiorum nostrorum flammas extinguere;
qui beato Laurentio tribuisti
tormentorum suorum incendia superare.

I’ll let you all have at and comment!

I limit myself to these observations. This prayer is in a vast array of the more ancient manuscripts we possess. Its style has the elements of Roman prayers. It is terse. It is not reticent. It has an elegant verbal and conceptual parallels (the genitive – accusative – infinitive in synchesis).

Enjoy!

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Brick By Brick in Michigan

Posted on 10 August 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a reader comes this for your Brick By Brick file.

I have some news for your brick by brick file. I am happy to report that this morning, August 9th, Fr. Tom Wasilewski, Diocese of Lansing Ordinand, 2010, celebrated his first ever Extraordinary Form Mass at the historic St. Joseph Shrine in Brooklyn, Michigan. This was also the area’s first public Traditional Latin Mass since the 1960s. Despite this fact, or perhaps because of it, the tiny church was packed for the occasion, with an estimated 100 souls in attendance.
Offering his first of hopefully many EF Masses, Fr. Wasilewski demonstrated impressive mastery of the Latin and competency in the rubrics. He delivered an inspiring sermon, relating how time put into studying the older form opens the gateway to experiencing its richness. In the future, Father hopes to incorporate the TLM into the regular Mass schedule of the Shrine.
One year ago, the Diocese of Lansing had only two Extraordinary Form Mass sites. The recent debuts of the TLM at St. Mary Cathedral Crypt in Lansing, Old St. Patrick in Ann Arbor, and now St. Joseph Shrine in Brooklyn have, by the grace of God and support of His Excellency Most Rev. Earl Boyea, increased this number to five!
WDTPRS kudos to Fr. Wasilewski and Bp. Boyea.

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A shout to my friends in London

Posted on 9 August 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I have been watching with horror the social unrest and riots in London. You have been in my prayers.

I fear we are going to see more of this sort of thing in the future.

Please stay safe!

UPDATE:

I wish I had access to someone’s SlingBox in London so I could watch the TV there and follow what is going on. I am hearing some pretty bad things on the news.

UPDATE:

See this from the Daily Telegraph.  Kids volunteer to clean up!  Go watch the video NOW.  Now, I say!

A shout to my friends in LondonA very cool story from The Guardian:

London riots: hundreds answer appeal to clean up streets

Facebook and Twitter mobilises hundreds of people to clear debris from streets in London’s worst-hit communities

Hundreds of people armed with brooms, binbags and rubber gloves turned out across London to help clean up the damage caused by a third night of rioting, looting and arson.

Co-ordinated online on Facebook and Twitter, volunteers mobilised in the worst-hit parts of the capital to sweep streets, help local shopkeepers and show solidarity with communities thrown into turmoil by the violence. Though their efforts were thwarted in many parts by police work, their presence on the streets gave a valuable morale boost to those seeking an end to the disturbances.

[…]

UPDATE:

Incidents mapped.

UPDATE 10 Aug 0026 London time:

From Fr. Finigan in Blackfen, Kent southeast of London:

If you are looking for an explanation of what is behind the “civil unrest” that seems to have taken everyone by surprise, here is an account from two girls in my childhood home, Croydon:

“Just showin the Police and the rich people we can do what we want” about sums it up, I think. “I can do what I want” is the net result of moral relativism applied by the ordinary teenager affected by original sin and educated in a system that undermines any real foundation of duty to God, country or neighbour.

Few people have noted the irony of the appeals by the Police to parents to “contact their children.”

For several decades our country has undermined marriage, the family, and the rights of parents. Agents of the state can teach your children how to have sex, give them condoms, put them on the pill, give them the morning-after pill if it doesn’t work, and take them off for an abortion if that doesn’t work – and all without you having any say in the matter or necessarily even knowing about it. Now all of a sudden, we want parents to step in and tell their teenage children how to behave.

WDTPRS Kudos to the great Fr. Finigan, PP of Blackfen.  Be safe, friend.

Posted in The future and our choices | Tagged ,
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How many women’s ordination groups does it take to change a light bulb?

Posted on 9 August 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

How many women's ordination groups does it take to change a light bulb?At the site of the Women’s Ordination Conference, there is a petition in support of Fr. Roy Bourgeois, MM (and heretic).  I loved this line:

“Our Catholic tradition teaches that sexism is a sin and excluding women from the priesthood is sinful.”

Oh?

It occurs to me that there is no Scriptural prohibition of slavery, but we do it anyway.  Just of the top of my head.

But the real fun starts when you visit their programs page and discover that WOC (which is “cow” spelled backwards) you find the – I swear I am not making this up – “Ministry of Irritation”.

Ministry of Irritation challenges the Vatican’s policies [“policies”] regarding women by engaging the hierarchy and organizing on a grassroots level to bring public attention to the issue of women’s ordination and the need for structural change in the church. [Sounds like Alinsky, doesn’t it?]

And here I thought the Ministry of Irritation was the Vatican’s Secretariat of State.

Does COW… o0000ps  WOC have a Ministrix of Irritation?

By the way, this petition for Roy is sponsored by the

  • Association of Roman Catholic Womenpriests,
  • Roman Catholic Womenpriests-USA,
  • and Women’s Ordination Conference.

I count three groups, all standing for the same cause. Hmmm.   I wonder why there are three instead of one.  Could it be that women who agree about women’s ordination can’t agree among themselves about anything else?

How many women’s ordination groups does it take to change a light bulb?

Let’s learn more about irritation.

The Ministry of Irritation is the area that most people already associate with WOC – [But not for the reasons they think.] it is our ministry of witnessing and prayerful protest. The purpose of this ministry is to challenge the Church’s policies regarding women [“policies”, not teachings, right?] by engaging the hierarchy and organizing on a grassroots level to publicly witness for women’s ordination into a renewing priestly ministry.

To explain why we use the term “irritation,” we use the analogy of the grain of sand and the oyster. The grain of sand irritates the inside of the oyster to create a beautiful pearl, and the people active irritation in this ministry are the grains of sand, irritating the Catholic hierarchy to create a pearl of wisdom for the Church that bring about repentance for the sins of the Kyriarchy [puh-leez!] and bring about a renewing priestly ministry!

Although most of the U.S. bishops have made it clear they do not want to talk with us, [Say it ain’t so!] through this ministry, we continue to make attempts to dialogue with them. [Try this.] In addition, we are developing new and creative ideas to fulfill our mission. In this ministry, WOC members organize and participate in the witness events that are a meaningful part of WOC’s history, [ooops…. herstory] actions such as:

[…]

You could craft a sitcom around this.

Or you could look at photos of a demonstration in favor of Roy Bourgeois.

Meanwhile….

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Flash memory.

Posted on 9 August 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

It’s not something you can plan for. How often do we consciously draw it in and say, “I’m going to file this away for later!” But it happens when we least expect it.

Few things are as evocative as a sudden scent.

Our sense of smell has amazing effects on our memory, doesn’t it? The smell of, say, rain setting dust after a hot summer day, the unexpected odor of some familiar comfort food being prepared, a waft of something dead, the scent of a baseball glove, a whiff of a perfume or cologne that recalls a person long missed, … can trebuchet you into a memory long untapped. They can be sweet or make you afraid all over again. They can bring smiles or tears with a force that cannot be rivaled. It is as if you aren’t seeing or hearing your actual present for a moment. You are instead somewhere and somewhen and sometimes someone else.

This morning I had one of these flashbacks.

The candles in the chapel were down to the nub, the brass followers practically touching the metal holder. There was no extracting the followers, so I pulled the waxen glob and the hot metal out of the candlesticks and took them to the house, whereupon I wrapped them in paper towels and put them on a sheet of foil in the oven.

When I opened the oven again, …

Melted beeswax.

I was 12 again at the kitchen table with my grandmother making Ukrainian Easter Eggs.

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Good news for the readers?

Posted on 9 August 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Let’s start the week out right.

What is your good news?  Let us know what good things are happening, even if they are disguised blessings.

I, for one, am experiencing a measure of threatening persecution right now, which has been a cause for me to turn more to Our Lady Queen of Priests, Christ the High Priest, and good friends.  A blessing in disguise.

As Card. Ratzinger told me years ago, about how he dealt with the attacks, if I am not being attacked I have to examine my conscience.

My Jesus, mercy.  Mary, Queen of Priests, pray for us.

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
56 Comments