And now… a message to you from the Holy Spirit.

Posted on 3 June 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

A reader alerted me to this great PC and PIXEL cartoon.

We have moved into the period between Ascension THURSDAY and Pentecost during which we, as a Church, pray in a particular way for the help of the Holy Spirit.

If we are full of ourselves, it is hard to accept the graces God offers.

Yesterday I heard a priest celebrating his 60th anniversary of ordination lay out plainly what a priest’s role is:

To try to keep as many people as possible out of hell and help as many as possible to heaven.

Pretty straight forward.

So… in the spirit of the cartoon, above… in the spirit of praying to the Holy Spirit, especially in the words of the Veni Sancte Spiritus…

Wash that which is unclean,
water that which is dry,
heal that which is wounded.

Bend that which is inflexible,
warm that which is chilled,
make right that which is wrong.

GO TO CONFESSION.

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D. Shrewsbury, England and the New Evangelization.

Posted on 3 June 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

For your Brick by Brick File.

From the UK’s best Catholic weekly, The Catholic Herald comes this, with my emphases and comments.

A major centre for Eucharistic Adoration and the Old Mass? It’s the latest episcopal surge forward

Bishop Davies is striking a blow for the reform of the reform

By William Oddie on Friday, 3 June 2011

Coming on top of all the post-papal visit developments (Friday abstinence, the recovery of some holy days of obligation, the episcopal welcome for the ordinariate, the bishops’ pastoral letter on the new Mass translation) on which I commented in my last blog, the news that Bishop Mark Davies, the new Bishop of Shrewsbury, has agreed to the establishment of a foundation of the Institute of Christ the King, Sovereign Priest at the threatened landmark Church of Ss Peter and Paul, New Brighton, represents another considerable, though local, episcopal surge in a generally Ratzingerian direction. [A manifestation of the “Benedict Bounce” perhaps.]

Bishop Davies’s appointment to Shrewsbury, incidentally, was an important one. This is not some rural diocese in the back of beyond. It covers not just Shropshire and, illogically, the Wirral (which surely ought by rights to be in the Archdiocese of Liverpool): the diocese is enormous, and, like Portsmouth, bizarrely irrational in its boundaries: it covers the parts of Merseyside south of the River Mersey, the southern parts of Greater Manchester (which surely ought rationally to be in the Salford diocese), parts of Derbyshire, and almost all of the county of Cheshire as well.

Back to developments in New Brighton. According to Bishop Davies’s press spokesman: “The principal aim of the new foundation will be to provide a centre in the Diocese of Shrewsbury for the celebration of Holy Mass and the other Sacraments in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite. The presence of the Institute – a Society of Apostolic Life of Pontifical Right – will also enable the church to become a centre for Eucharistic devotion and Adoration, allowing the faithful to come to pray for an increase in faith and love for the Most Holy Eucharist”.

Now, if you’re not used to reading official statements from diocesan press officers—issued not just to the Church press but to all the secular press in the area, don’t forget, this is a big story locally – written in such devotionally high-powered language, there are two good reasons. The first is that the diocesan press officer concerned is one Simon Caldwell (whom I appointed some years ago to the staff of The Catholic Herald for his combined ability and orthodoxy): the second is that he is faithfully representing here the mindset of Bishop Davies, a thoroughgoing advocate of Pope Benedict’s reform of the reform, who as well as talking the talk is now seriously walking the walk.

We may now, I sincerely trust, look forward to a series of such appointments from the new nuncio (Bishop Stack’s to Cardiff was a blip, for which Archbishop Mennini wasn’t responsible). This is, I hope and assume, the way things are now going; and to their credit, many of our existing bishops, since the papal visit, have sensed this and are beginning to accommodate themselves to it so that a gulf doesn’t open up between the old and the new: hence, the pastoral letter from all the bishops, and all the other developments, I wrote about in my last post.

Just how wide that gulf could potentially be was demonstrated this week by an anonymous comment on Fr Ray Blake’s excellent blog after his passing on of this very welcome development from the Shrewsbury diocese:

Last year I wrote to my bishop and suggested that he invite a priest from one of the traditional priestly societies into his diocese. His response was extremely dismissive. In his reply he said: [Get this…] “Since the Second Vatican Council’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, Catholics are no longer prepared to be treated as children – ruled by bishops and talked down to by priests. I cannot imagine many of our people taking kindly to priests formed in the traditional seminaries to which you refer.” [Perhaps just a touch of the hermeneutic of discontinuity there.]

I think I can say with confidence that he has never met, or spoken to, a priest or seminarian from any of the traditional priestly societies. This is the kind of blind and dismissive attitude that is all too common in this country and nothing will improve until some of our bishops undergo a Damascene conversion.  [Or experience the full-force of the Bux Protocol.]

Much will depend on how things go in New Brighton, of course. …

[…]

Yes, indeed it will.  I hope they don’t screw up the great opportunity.

You can read the rest of Oddie’s piece at The Catholic Herald.

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It is hard to believe that people can be this dumb.

Posted on 3 June 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Via CMR (you can read the rest there):

Freedom of speech is DOA in the USA folks.

A federal judge has ruled that nobody at a high school graduation can use religious terms like “prayer” and “Amen.”

So, remember that whole thing about “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech…” Well, it looks like judges can do whatever the hell they please.

Fox News reports:

A federal judge has ordered a Texas school district to prohibit public prayer at a high school graduation ceremony.

Chief U.S. District Judge Fred Biery’s order against the Medina Valley Independent School District also forbids students from using specific religious words including “prayer” and “amen.”

The ruling was in response to a lawsuit filed by Christa and Danny Schultz. Their son is among those scheduled to participate in Saturday’s graduation ceremony. The judge declared that the Schultz family and their son would “suffer irreparable harm” if anyone prayed at the ceremony.

[…]

I guess this means they can’t even sing John Lennon’s Imagine.

“Contempt” isn’t strong enough.  Nor does “contempt” include the component of “pity” that wells up alongside the contempt.

Posted in New Evangelization, The future and our choices, The Last Acceptable Prejudice, Throwing a Nutty | Tagged , , ,
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Chicago – 5 June – Bp. Morlino – Pontifical Mass Extraordinary Form – St. John Cantius

Posted on 3 June 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Here is something for all of you anywhere near that toddlin’ town Chicago:

Join Most Rev. Robert Morlino, Bishop of Madison, and the Canons Regular of St. John Cantius for the 12:30 pm Tridentine Pontifical High Mass on the External Solemnity of the Ascension.  [Not the same as Ascension Thursday Sunday.]

Resurrection Choir and Orchestra will provide the music:

Prelude: Let the Bright Seraphim, George Frederick Handel (1685-1759)
Entrance of the Bishop: Ecce Sacerdos, Rev. Scott A. Haynes (b. 1971) [NB: Not dead yet. o{];¬) ]
Ordinary: Mass in G, 167, Franz Peter Schubert (1797-1828)
Motets: Tantum Ergo, Gabriel Fauré (1845 – 1924) and Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, K 273, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Recessional: Prelude on the Te Deum, Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1645-1704)

My kind of town.

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The Ascension and Feet

Posted on 2 June 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

There are many images of the Lord’s Ascension to heaven.

The one’s I like the most are the medieval depictions which show the Apostles and Mary looking up and all you see above are a pair of lordly Feet.

UPDATE:

A commentator, below, provided a link to an excellent reflection.  From the site Ignatius Insight, providing an excerpt from “The Ascension: The Beginning of a New Nearness,” from Joseph Ratzinger’s Images of Hope: Meditations on Major Feasts (Ignatius Press, 2006).  My emphases and comments:

You are surely familiar with all those precious, naïve images in which only the feet of Jesus are visible, sticking out of the cloud, at the heads of the apostles. The cloud, for its part, is a dark circle on the perimeter; on the inside, however, blazing light. It occurs to me that precisely in the apparent naïveté of this representation something very deep comes into view. All we see of Christ in the time of history are his feet and the cloud. His feet—what are they?

We are reminded, first of all, of a peculiar sentence from the Resurrection account in Matthew’s Gospel, where it is said that the women held onto the feet of the Risen Lord and worshipped him. As the Risen One, he towers over earthly proportions. We can still only touch his feet; and we touch them in adoration. Here we could reflect that we come as worshippers, following his trail, close to his footsteps. Praying, we go to him; praying, we touch him, even if in this world, so to speak, always only from below, only from afar, always only on the trail of his earthly steps. At the same time it becomes clear that we do not find the footprints of Christ when we look only below, when we measure only footprints and want to subsume faith in the obvious. The Lord is movement toward above, and only in moving ourselves, in looking up and ascending, do we recognize him.

When we read the Church Fathers something important is added. The correct ascent of man occurs precisely where he learns, in humbly turning toward his neighbor, to bow very deeply, down to his feet, down to the gesture of the washing of feet. It is precisely humility, which can bow low, that carries man upward. This is the dynamic of ascent that the feast of the Ascension wants to teach us.

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QUAERITUR: as much money goes to protecting a few wicked priests as goes to vocations

Posted on 2 June 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a reader:

I just found out my home diocese has spent around the same amount annually on sexual abuse fees as it has for vocations. I am so discouraged. How can I continue to see to the material needs of the Church when the money I give is being spent on protecting a few wicked priests?

Yes, it is deeply frustrating that so much money, that could be better applied elsewhere, has to be expended in that way because of the wicked and the sick.

However, I am not going to admit your premise.  I don’t think that anywhere money is being spent to “protect wicked priests”.   There is no line item in the budget that says “for the protection of wicked priests”.

But I think you are talking about expenditures of money to victims of abuse by priests.

Even though mere monetary compensation can’t heal the damage that was done to victims, it is something that is done with a measure of our imperfect human justice.  There is no perfect justice here.  Only in heaven is there perfect justice.  But it is at least something, one of the components along with expressions of regret and concrete steps to make sure that men inclined to do that sort of thing are never ordained, etc.

Also, it could be that, figured into that budget, there is money being spent so that men who are falsely accused are receiving legal defense.

Furthermore, a diocese has also to take prudent steps to protect and be good stewards of the assets of the diocese so that the works of religion can go on in the local Church.  The bishop of the diocese has a spiritual responsibility to keep as many people out of hell as possible and also a fiduciary responsibility in regard to the material wealth of the local Church.  When wolves come, shepherds protect the flock and that “flock” has also to include the terrain, the pasture, that is, the assets of the diocese.  Otherwise, what sort of bishops are they?

There is no lack of wolves, surrounding the Church waiting for a moment of exposure.  There are wolves inside the Church as well.  There always have been.  There always will be.  But, thank God, a certain kind of wolf is now nearing extinction.

Bishops are, therefore, in a very difficult position regarding justice to priests, victims, and all the people of the diocese in regard to their spiritual welfare and the material stewardship of the Church’s goods.  When it comes to a priest or bishop or religious putting the Church at risk because of this damaging behavior… that places the bishop in a very difficult dilemma.

There are many projects, some more appealing and some less, for which diocesan money must be spent.  But we take the bad with the good in this world.

Posted in ASK FATHER Question Box, Clerical Sexual Abuse |
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QUAERITUR: Do I follow the law from back home when I am travelling?

Posted on 2 June 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a reader:

What should one do when one is travelling on an HDO? Should one follow the rule for the diocese one is actually in, or the one where one resides? What if one is on the plane during the day? How does one know which rule to follow? My husband and I have actually had this dilemma and didn’t have a clue what to do.

HDO…. HDO… I assume this means Heavy Derrick Operator.

If you are traveling on a Heavy Derrick Operator, then please get off now. I don’t think that either he or your husband will approve of this odd way of traveling, and you may be getting into all sorts of problems with unions and overtime.

St. Augustine recounts an episode about his mother, St. Monnica, when she was with him in Milan.  Monnica carried on with her North African custom of refrigeria meals (called laetitia in Confessions 6.2.2) in cemeteries by the tombs of the dead.  This  raised many Milanese eyebrows, including those of bishop Ambrose.

Augustine says that Ambrose instructed Monnica not to do this in Milan, for it was not their local custom.  Ambrose said that when he was in Rome, he followed the Roman laws concerning fasting, which were different from those of Milan: “When I am here I do not fast on Saturday, but when I am at Rome I do; whatever Church you may come to, conform to its custom”  (cf. Augustine ep 36.14.32 and ep 54.2.3).

In other words, when in Rome you do as the Romans do.

We follow the local rules of the place where we are, according to our Church.  Latin Church members follow Latin Church rules of the local Latin diocese even if they go to a Ukrainian Catholic Church for Divine Liturgy that day.

And, yes, this applies to HDO.

I also applies to Holy Days of Obligation.

But, make sure to check if Thursday, Ascension THURSDAY, has been transferred to Ascension Thursday Sunday in the place you actually observe it.

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QUAERITUR: Elevation of chalice, paten during concelebrations.

Posted on 2 June 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a reader:

At a concelebrated Mass without a deacon, is it permitted / required / impermissible for one of the concelebrants to elevate the chalice while the main celebrant elevates the paten?

First, allow me to say that concelebration should be safe, legal and rare.

Second, I assume we are talking about the doxology at the end of the Eucharistic Prayer.

That said, I read in the Newsletter of the USCCB’s Committee for Divine Worship, the response to a dubium sent to the CDW in Rome.

My brother priests who are interested in concelebration may be interested in this:

Role of Concelebrating Priests at the Doxology of the Eucharistic Prayer

In this dubium, the question concerned the role of concelebrating Priests and whether they were permitted to take up the various chalices from the altar before the final doxology of the Eucharistic Prayer. Quoting from the General Instruction [Institution] of the Roman Missal, the Congregation emphasized the proper role of the Deacon in holding up the chalice next to the Priest for the final doxology: “At the final doxology of the Eucharistic Prayer, the deacon stands next to the priest, holding the chalice elevated while the priest elevates the paten with the host, until the people have responded with the acclamation, Amen” (no. 180).

According to the Congregation’s response, “Therefore, the use is reprobated [a technical term meaning that it is abolished with such force that no claim of custom can be made] where all or many concelebrants at the altar proceed to take up the chalices at the time of the final doxology. Rather, it is the duty of the celebrant, or the deacon, or one concelebrant to elevate the [principal] chalice.” It is presumed by extension that the same could be said regarding the elevation of multiple ciboria or patens by various concelebrants. Given the response and the principles of the General Instruction of the Roman Missal, only the main paten and the main chalice are to be elevated by the celebrant assisted by the Deacon, or in the absence of a Deacon, by a single concelebrant.
(March-April 2009, pg. 171)

I think that answers the question.

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QUAERITUR: Feast of the Precious Blood transferred this year?

Posted on 2 June 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a reader:

I believe that there is an error on the FSSP calendar this year. Their calendar shows the Feast of the Most Precious Blood being transferred to July 2 because July 1 is the Feast of the Sacred Heart. According to the 1962 Rubricae Generals, #96, it states “Festum I classis impeditum a die qui in tabella praecedentiae superiorem obtinet locum, transfertur in proximum sequentem diem qui non I vel II classis.”

Since the Feast of the Visitation is on July 2 and is ranked II class, and July 3 is the 3rd. Sunday after Pentecost (also II class), then the Feast of the Most Precious Blood should be transferred to Monday, July 4 according to this rubric.

Am I reading this correctly?

ummm…

Yes.  I believe you are.

I don’t have the FSSP Ordo with me at the moment, so I’ll take your word for it.

The Feast of the Visitation, in the older, traditional Roman Calendar, should fall on 2 July.  This is a 2nd class feast.  Therefore it seems that the observance of the Precious Blood must be moved another day, to 3 July.

But wait!  There’s more!

Since 3 July is a Sunday, which is a 2nd class feast, that means Precious Blood gets bumped another day, to 4 July.

And I thought it was interesting that, this year, the Feasts of the Sacred Heart and the Precious Blood fell on the same day.

I’ll bet some people though Ascension Thursday Sunday was complicated.



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The Ascension of the Lord from the Patristic Rosary Project

Posted on 2 June 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Here is an excerpt from something I did a few years ago for my Patristic Rosary Project:

2nd Glorious Mystery: The Ascension

Everything about the life of the Lord is a blessing for us. After His resurrection the Lord blessed the Apostles with His presence, gloriously risen. When His earthly work with them was completed, He very explicitly blessed them. “Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. While he blessed them, he parted from them, and was carried up into heaven.” (Luke 24:50-51). Even the Lord’s departure from us was a blessing and it occurred in the midst of Christ’s explicit blessing of His apostles. Venerable Bede (+735) speaks of the Lord’s blessing:

Our Redeemer appeared in the flesh to take away sins, remove what humans deserved because of the first curse, and grant believers an inheritance of everlasting blessing. He rightly concluded all that He did in the world with words of blessing. He showed that He was the very one of whom it was said, “For indeed He who gave the law will give a blessing.” (Ps 83:8 Vulgate) It is appropriate that He led those who He blessed out to Bethany, which is interpreted “house of obedience”. Contempt and pride deserved a curse, but obedience deserved a blessing. The Lord Himself was made obedient to His Father even unto death, so that He might restore the lost grace of blessing to the world. He gives the blessing of heavenly life only to those who strive in the holy Church to comply with the divine commands. [Homilies on the Gospels 11.15]

Remember that for Bede, like most of the Fathers, the details have spiritual meanings. Even the place to which the Lord led the Apostles meant something:

We must not pass over the fact that Bethany is on the slope of the Mount of Olives. Just as Bethany represents a Church obedient to the commands of the Lord, so the Mount of Olives quite fittingly represents the very Person of our Lord. Appearing in the flesh, he excels all the saints, who are simply human beings, by the loftiness of His dignity and the grace of His spiritual power.

PeruginoSt. Cyril of Alexandria (+444) speaks of the blessing the Lord confers:

Having blessed them and gone ahead a little, he was carried up into heaven so that He might share the Father’s throne even with the flesh that was united to Him. The Word made this new pathway for us when He appeared in human form. After this, and in due time, He will come again in the glory of His Father with the angels and will take us up to be with Him. Let is glorify Him.

We may not at all times remember that even at this very instant our human nature is, in the divine Person of Our Lord, seated at the right hand of the Father. We are therefore in a state of “already but not yet”: humanity is enthroned in heaven sharing something of God’s glory, and yet we are still here, awaiting the final realization of all Christ accomplished. St. Leo the Great (+461) pries this open:

Dearly beloved, through all this time between the resurrection of the Lord and His ascension, the providence of God thought of this, taught this and penetrated their eyes and hearts. He wanted them to recognize the Lord Jesus Christ as truly risen, who was truly born, truly suffered and truly died. The manifest truth strengthened the blessed apostles and all the disciples who were frightened by His death on the Cross and were doubtful of His resurrection. The result was the were not only afflicted with sadness but also filled with “great joy” when the Lord went into the heights of heaven. It was certainly a great and indescribable source of joy when, in the sight of the heavenly multitudes, the nature of our human race ascended over the dignity of all heavenly creatures. It passed the angelic orders and was raised beyond the heights of archangels. In its ascension, our human race did not stop at any other height until this same nature was received at the seat of the eternal Father. Our human nature, united with the divinity of the Son, was on the throne of His glory. The ascension of Christ is not elevation. Hope for the body is also invited where the glory of the Head preceded us. Let us exalt, dearly beloved, with worthy joy and be glad with a holy thanksgiving. Today we not only are established as possessors of paradise, but we have even penetrated the heights of the heavens in Christ. The indescribable grace of Christ, which we lost through the ill will of the devil, prepared us more fully for that glory. Incorporated within Himself, the Son of God placed those whom the violent enemy threw down from the happiness of our first dwelling at the right hand of the Father. The Son of God lives and reigns with God the Father almighty and with the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen. [s. 73.3-4]

Before His ascension, the Lord laid a great commission on the apostles. Here is St. Jerome (+420):

“Jesus approached them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me.'” This authority was given to one who had just been crucified, buried in a tomb, laid dead, and afterwards had arisen. Authority was given to Him in both heaven and earth so that He who once reigned in heaven might also reign on earth through the faith of His believers. “Go therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.'” First they teach all nations; then they baptize those they have taught with water for the body is not able to receive the sacrament of baptism before the soul has received the truth of the faith. They were baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit so that the three who are one in divinity might also be one in giving themselves. The name of the Trinity is the name of the one God. “‘Teach them to observe all that I have commanded you.'” What a marvelous sequence this is. He commanded the apostles first to teach all nations and then to baptize them in the sacrament of faith and then, after faith and baptism, to teach them to observe all that He had commanded. Lest we think these commandments of little consequence or few in number, he added, “all that I have commanded you,” so that those who were to believe and be baptized in the Trinity would observe everything they had been taught. [Commentary on Matthew 4.28.18-19]

This is a heavy charge, but the Lord consoles them as well. St. John Chrysostom (+407) makes this point:

After that, because he had enjoined on them great things, to raise their courage He reassures them that He will be with then always, “even to the end of the world.” Now do you see the relation of His glory to His previous condescension? His own proper power is again restored. What He had said previously was spoken during the time of His humiliation. He promised to be not only with these disciples but also with all who would subsequently believe after them. Jesus speaks to all believers as if to one body. Do not speak to me, He says, of the difficulties you will face, for “I am with you,” as the one who makes all things easy. Remember that this is also said repeatedly to the prophets in the Old Testament. Recall Jeremiah objecting that He is too young and Moses and Ezekiel shrinking from the prophet’s office. “I am with you” is spoken to all these people. [The Gospel of Matthew, Homily 90.2]

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