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{]:¬)

WDTPRS – Trinity Sunday: Are you beautiful at Mass?

Posted on 4 June 2023 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

At some point we wind up taking a stab at explaining the Trinity to someone. Results vary.

Today, to get at the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity, let’s use the final prayer at Holy Mass in the venerable, traditional form of the Roman Rite as a crowbar.

Here is the Postcommunio of the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity in the 1962MR.

POST COMMUNION (1962 & 2002MR):

Proficiat nobis ad salutem corporis et animae, Domine Deus noster, huius sacramenti susceptio, et sempiternae sanctae Trinitatis eiusdemque individuae Unitatis confessio.

There is a pleasant rhyme herein of susceptio and confessio, three syllable words preceded by words of four syllables and both deserving a little closer inspectio.

The indomitable Lewis & Short Dictionary indicates that a susceptio is “a taking in hand, undertaking” and “an acceptance”. This is a substantive derived from the verb suscipio. The deponent verb confiteor gives us the noun confessio, which means in its basic meaning “a confession, acknowledgment” and thus also “a creed, avowal of belief” and more specifically in the Latin Vulgate “an acknowledgment of Christ” (Rom 10:10, Heb 3:1) and therefore in the early Church “an acknowledgment of Christ under torture; and hence, “torture, suffering for religion’s sake” (Lactantius, De mortibus persecutorum 1).

A review of vocabulary is important, and can provide new insights into the deeper meaning of a prayer. The structure or word order can give clues as well.

Today we have one main verb proficiat, coming from proficio (“to profit, derive advantage” and “to be useful, serviceable, advantageous, etc.,”) an old friend of WDTPRS vets. This verb has two subjects, susceptio and confessio. Susceptio is further specified by huius sacramenti (“reception of this sacrament”) and confessio is delineated in two ways, Trinitatis (“of the Trinity”) and Unitatis (“of the Unity”).

Often in Latin we will have a sentence structure of noun and then, frequently at the very end, main verb, with many other clauses and material in between which can be pealed open like layers of an onion. Here, the verb is out front as the very first word and the final subject noun is the last word.

For me, this structure emphasizes the nouns susceptio and especially confessio and the intimate relationship between them as well as the concepts that are attached to them, that is, the intimate bond at the moment of Communion between our reception of Christ’s Body and Blood with our confession of a God who is Triune – Three distinct divine Persons having one indivisible divine nature.

Furthermore, the theme of distinct elements in indivisible unity is even carried into the effect we hope for from the act of Communion in Mass: “health” of both “body and soul”. Latin salus is “a being safe and sound; a sound or whole condition, health, welfare, prosperity, preservation, safety, deliverance” and also in Christian contexts such as the Vulgate “salvation, deliverance from sin and its penalties. It can be rendered as both “health” and “salvation”.

OBSOLETE ICEL (1973):

Lord, God,
we worship you, a Trinity of Persons, one eternal God.
May our faith and the sacrament we receive
bring us health of mind and body.

SUPER LITERAL TRANSLATION:

May the reception of this sacrament, O Lord our God, and also the confession of our faith in the holy everlasting Trinity and of the undivided Unity of the same, profit us for the salvation of body and soul.

CURRENT ICEL (2011):

May receiving this Sacrament, O Lord our God,
bring us health of body and soul,
as we confess your eternal holy Trinity and undivided Unity.

Hmmmm…. you decide.

We have pairs of terms in this Latin prayer which underscore relationships: corpus and anima, susceptio and confessio, Trinitas and Unitas. Each element is necessary for and balances the other.

Humans are by God’s design persons comprised of both body and soul (corpus et anima). By contrast, angels are persons having only a soul but no body. The temporary separation of our body and our soul results in death. Their reunion at the end of time produces the resurrection of the flesh.

God loves us so much that he provides sustenance for both constituent elements.

In Holy Communion we have a food which our body transforms into what it is (flesh and blood) and which transforms our souls in to what It is (more perfect images of the Triune God after the Person of the Risen Christ).

For us to participate in this mysterious exchange of transformations we must both inwardly and outwardly conform to the transcendent reality we seek to embrace and be embraced by.

HENCE, before we can receive the transformed and transforming Host in Communion, we must be in an authentic communion of faith both with a larger group of believers and partakers (called the Church) and we must be interiorly disposed to receive the invisible benefits that the outward signs and actions portend. We must make a true confession and profession of faith consistent with our interior landscape. We must also be physically disposed, which is why we are asked to fast before receiving the Eucharist.

And now the moment you’ve been waiting for….

In the mystery of the Unity and Trinity of God we believe that, from all eternity and before material creation and even outside of time itself, the One God who desired a perfect communion of love expressed Himself in a perfect Word, containing all that He is. The Word God uttered was and is a perfect self-expression, also perfectly possessing what the Speaker possesses: being, omniscience, omnipotence, truth, beauty, and even personhood. So, from all eternity there were always two divine Persons, the God who spoke and the Word who was spoken, the God who Generates and the God who is Generated, true God with and from true God, Begetter and Begotten, Father and Son. There was never a time when this was not so. These two Persons eternally regard and contemplate each other. From all eternity they knew and loved each other, each offering the other a perfect gift of self-giving. Since the self-gift of these perfect and divine Persons, distinct but sharing one divine nature, can be nothing other than a perfect self-gift, perfectly given and perfectly received, the very Gift between them also contains all that each of the Persons have: being, omniscience, omnipotence, truth, beauty, and even personhood. Therefore, from all eternity there exist three distinct divine Persons having one indivisible divine nature, Father, Son and the perfect self-gift of love between them, the Holy Spirit.

This is a foundational, saving doctrine we believe in as Christians. At the core of everything else we believe in and hope for, we will find this mysterious doctrine of divine relationship, the Triune God.

By baptism we images of God are brought into a new relationship with this Triune God.

We become the adoptive children of the heavenly Father, members of the Son our Lord Jesus Christ in the Mystical Person of the Holy Church which He founded. The Holy Spirit makes of us His dwelling so that all the divine Persons are present to us and in us, informing all that we are, do and say. Our membership in the Church opens the way to an eternal relationship of glory and praise with the Trinity.

The promise and token of this eternal reward is how we, as members of a Church of believers professing a common Faith, can take into our bodies, and thus into our souls, the already transformed Body and Blood of the Second Person, the one who unites in His divine Person both the eternity divinity of God and the finite two-fold nature of man.

For this to have taken place, and to make it possible for us to “return back” to the Father, the Second Person “went forth” from the Father in a new way, this time in the context of time and space.

In taking us up in our human nature, He made an act of self-empyting. In filling us with divine gifts in Holy Communion, Christ renews (not re-sacrifices) His Sacrifice, His giving forth and His taking back up again.

In Holy Mass we are asked to “take up and give forth” (susceptio et confessio). In our confessio we make an exterior expression, giving forth outwardly what we are within.

“I confess (confiteor) to almighty God…” is just a scratching of the surface, though an important one.

For St. Augustine, in his great prayer and autobiographical “giving forth” (The Confessions), the word confessio carried layers upon layers of meaning. As we learn from the magisterial Augustinus Lexicon, for Augustine confessio simultaneously, and in a fluid way, bore three main concepts: confession of sin, praise of God, and profession of faith.

For Augustine all created things in the universe, even inanimate things, both give witness to God and give Him glory:

“Respondent tibi omnia: Ecce vide, pulchra sumus. Pulchritudo eorum confessio eorum… All things respond to you, O God: ‘Behold! See! We are beautiful!’ Their beauty is their hymn of praise/demonstration that you are God/admission that they are not God” (s. 241, 2 – PL 38: 1133).

QUAERITUR:

Are we beautiful at Mass?

What we do outwardly in our bodies, and what we do interiorly in our souls, must conform to the Trinity in whose image we are made.

Receiving Holy Communion is a profound statement of who we are and what we hope to be. The act of reception must be consistent with who we are and what we are about in life. That act of reception must inform and transform all other acts which, in their turn, are a living “confession”, bearing witness, giving praise, and recognizing our true status before God which can often involve confession of sins.

Similarly every act of praise and testimony of the Church in her liturgy should reflect beautifully and accurately all that the Church professes and longs for.

Every liturgical gesture, church building, vestment, and musical prayer, must be like a gift simultaneously coming forth from the Sacred Heart of the Son and given to us for our benefit as well as a response we make to the glory of the Triune God who gives them.

“Their beauty is their praise.”

Posted in SESSIUNCULA | Tagged Trinity Sunday
1 Comment

REPOST ASK FATHER: How to make a “Trinitini” Martini for Trinity Sunday and avoid committing heresy?

Posted on 4 June 2023 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Here’s an oldie but goodie.

QUAESITUM EST:

We are planning to have a special drink for the potluck to commemorate today’s Feast of the Trinity.

We were planning to do a “Trinitini”, a Martini with three olives to represent the three Persons in the One Triune God.

However, just want to check that we wouldn’t be falling into any heresy (e.g., Arianism, Partialism, Modalism, Tritheism…) by doing so.

What would you suggest? One olive? Three?

I respond saying that, in the matter of Martinis, heresy is very bad.

That said, let’s solve this problem. In advance, I consulted a highly credentialed theologian to sort this out and to check my work. No, really, I did.

The first thing we have to deal with is the notion of “making” a Trinitini.

We have to stipulate that, in this vale of tears (with which, of mine enemies, I sometimes flavor my Martinis) the Trinitini can’t make itself.

To make a non-heretical Trinitini, you must “make” three Martinis simultaneously, from the same gin, in one pitcher.

No Vodka as the principle pour, please. That opens up all the Filioque problems. The addition of some Vodka is admissible. [Added 2023]

TO SERVE: Pour them, simultaneously but distinctly by measure, remembering that, in the West, the second measure comes from the first and the third measure comes from both the first two, into one large well-chilled glass such that you have the three Martinis in one glass which has three garnishes.

The three garnishes, for the three Martinis in one glass, symbolize the three missions of the Martinis. So, the Trinitini will have its lemon twist (a “Perfect” Martini), its pickled onion (which has layers), and its olive (without stuffing). Hence, in the one glass containing the three Martinis would be the distinction of the three-in-one nature of each Martini, each sharing in the same nature but distinct, and all working together in everything, but with different missions.

I believe that would avoid most of the heresies listed above.

And, please, serve straight up.

“But Father! But Father!”, some of you doubters are now mewling, “don’t you know that a Martini with an onion is really a Gibson?!? You are a heretic by introducing into the Trinity different kind of … um… you know… thing… it’s a… YOU HATE VATICAN II!”

Dear skeptic, be not afeared. The combined identity of the Martini with onion (which has layers) and the Gibson underscores the two natures in Christ.

Moreover, do not be concerned with the issue of the “blending” of the three Martinis as they are simultaneously and distinctly poured. This is taken care of by the concept of perichoresis. The relationship of the three Martinis in one Trinitini is like a “dance” which realizes both their oneness and threeness in an interpenetration leaving them nevertheless distinct. (Cf. John 17:21: “That they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us”.) Do not doubt that the Spirit is present.

And, that they may all be in us, pour carefully!

QUAERITUR: Would it be okay to substitute a hot pepper for the olive?
RESPONSE: Affirmative. It could be appropriate so long as the heat of the pepper doesn’t distract overly from the flavor of the other two garnishes.

On the vital issue of shaking or stirring.

Make the three Martinis by stirring (cf. perichoresis… circumincession), but not… NOT… by shaking. Quod Deus avertat.

Lastly, given what we can tell of God’s sense of humor, the Trinitini should always be dry.

With that, it’s time for Vespers.

Posted in Classic Posts, Lighter fare, Linking Back |
5 Comments

Your Sunday Sermon Notes: Trinity Sunday 2023

Posted on 4 June 2023 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Too many people today are without good, strong preaching, to the detriment of all. Share the good stuff.

Was there a GOOD point made in the sermon you heard at your Mass of obligation for Trinity Sunday?

We can have an exception to just good stuff this week.

Since this is a day when some priests or deacons go to the zoo in trying to talk about the Trinity, did you hear any really good heresy today, or something just plain stupid?

Tell about attendance especially for the Traditional Latin Mass. I hear that it is growing. Of COURSE. The church was jammed in Rome. As “diverse” a crowd as you will see anywhere other than a major international airport.

Any local changes or (hopefully good) news?

Posted in SESSIUNCULA | Tagged Sunday sermons
7 Comments

ROME 06/3 Day… My View For Awhile: Brooklyn to SOCOM

Posted on 3 June 2023 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I was not in Rome to see today’s sunrise at 0534.

Instead, I was awake to see the sunrise in Brooklyn at 0526, though I admit I went back to sleep for a while.

I’ll probably stay on my feet until sunset, after this my final leg of the Roman Sojourn.

Coming back west isn’t so hard for the jet lag, but, hey.

Last night out to a Russian place at Brighton Beach with a bunch of priests.

Herring. The raw onion was like candy.

A lovely bowl of borscht. I ordered cold. She brought me hot. All good.

Which drink is mine? Is or was? I may have moved them around to be sneaky.

Octopus. Thanks, Olga… you are a cut up.

This Georgian thing was on the table for all. Cheesy. No idea what it is called.

On the boardwalk.

Morning comes and with it certain obligations.

CHESS NEWS

Fabiano Caruana won another classical game to take the lead in Norway. He also rose to #3 in the world in rating! After drawing their first classical game in four years after about 10 minutes of play, Magnus Carlsen beat Hikaru Nakamura in the tiebreaker. It was a crazy thing. KING’s GAMBIT! My guy Wesley played to a tie with the help of his opponent.

Norway Chess continues on Saturday

Please remember me when shopping online. Thanks in advance. US HERE – UK HERE

Here’s a puzzle.

Mate in 2. White to move.

Chesscomshop Banner

More later…

The once great Palm. I understand it has crashed and burned nation wide under new management. Too bad.

Started by Nancy Silverton who took her bread inspiration from my bakery in the Campo de’ Fiori.

here we go

Posted in On the road, SESSIUNCULA, What Fr. Z is up to |
8 Comments

“I’ll see your ‘Wakanda!’ and raise you a ‘KATONDA!'” The Feast of St Charles Lwanga, Martyr – A saint we can all take pride in!

Posted on 3 June 2023 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

“Katonda!”

This year today is in the Vetus Ordo calendar Ember Friday in the Octave of Penance. However, it is also the Feast of St. Charles Lwanga. That said, because of the decree Cum sanctissima we can now celebrate St. Lwanga using the 1962 on days when it is not some feast that would outweigh it.

Here is what I posted on St. Charles in the past.

If you don’t know this saint, be sure to read it. It is powerful.

As “Pride” month continues…

Today is the feast of St. Charles Lwanga and companions, murder victims and martyrs of homosexual depravity.

Today we might also contemplate the various ways in which the State is encroaches in our lives in this regard and tries to force us to do things that are repugnant to nature and to God’s laws.

Today we should especially ask God to forgive and convert all those who in any way have contributed to or succumbed to any aspect of what is rightly called toxic “gender theory” and called demonic, due to its origin.

How to view the SSPX.

Posted on 2 June 2023 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

This is interesting from Catholic Family News as a development of the SSPX’s great “proof of concept” project, the building and consecration of their beautiful, huge new church in Kansas, The Immaculata.

“While regrettably the Church and the SSPX are not currently in full communion, the Archdiocese does not consider the SSPX to be schismatic.

While canonically one may fulfill one’s obligation to participate at Holy Mass on Sundays and Holy Days of obligation by attending an SSPX Mass, the Masses are not licitly offered by priests possessing the grant of priestly faculties from the Archdiocese. Therefore, participation at SSPX Masses to satisfy one’s Sunday obligation is discouraged.

The Archdiocese does, in support of Pope Francis’ pastoral outlook as expressed in the 2017 letter, grant SSPX priests the faculty to witness marriages when the priests request it. The Archdiocese understands that at this time the SSPX priests in St. Marys request faculties to witness all marriages at The Immaculata.”

So, the Archdiocese of Kansas City (in Kansas) gives faculties/delegation to SSPX priests to witness marriages.

The Archdiocese of Kansas City does not hold the SSPX to be in schism. (After all they give the priests faculties for marriages.)

The Archdiocese of Kansas City say you fulfill your Sunday and Holy Day of Precept obligation by attending the Masses of the SSPX. (After all, why wouldn’t you? It’s a simple matter of can. 1248 §1.)

The only thing that needs more thought in the above is that idea of “full communion”. You are either in communion or not, no?

Posted in Canon Law, SSPX | Tagged Archd. Kansas City, SSPX
22 Comments

Pentecost Friday: You are our stretcher bearers.

Posted on 2 June 2023 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

The Pentecost Friday – it’s an Ember Day – Roman Station is Dodici Apostoli, Twelve Apostles, because that’s where Friday Ember Day Stations are. Believe me. It was pulled to Dodici Apostoli from its original place Ss. Giovanni e Paolo on the Coelian Hill.

The texts of the Mass today are calming, as befits summery pursuits. Crops are planted. Early harvest of first fruits and grains are in. Other plantings and fruits are maturing. The days are long, warm, languid. There is always something to be done, but there is long daylight for leisure.

Leisure and praise of God. As the Introit says and the other joyful antiphons echo today:

“Let my mouth be filled with Your praise, alleluia: that I may sing, alleluia. My lips shall shout for joy as I sing Your praises, alleluia, alleluia.”

The reading from Joel is about the harvest, and grain and wine and the gifts of God. Here it is, but including v. 25 which had been excluded.

“Be glad, O sons of Zion,
    and rejoice in the Lord, your God;
for he has given the early rain for your vindication,
    he has poured down for you abundant rain,
    the early and the latter rain, as before.

²⁴“The threshing floors shall be full of grain,
    the vats shall overflow with wine and oil.
²⁵I will restore to you the years
    which the swarming locust has eaten,
the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter,
    my great army, which I sent among you.

²⁶“You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied,
    and praise the name of the Lord your God,
    who has dealt wondrously with you.
And my people shall never again be put to shame.
²⁷You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel,
    and that I, the Lord, am your God and there is none else.
And my people shall never again
    be put to shame.

Alleluia! As the Holy Spirit moved on the waters and brought forth good things from the earth at the beginning of Creation, so too does He move and work now and in us.

If it is by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that our Alleluias are inspired, formed, charged and launched on high, it is also under the influence of the Spirit that our good works – fruits – are performed.

The Gospel today is about the man whose friends lower him through the roof to get him to Jesus, who heals him. It’s a great moment, one of my favorites, in the Gospels. Imagine the sheer chutzpah of the man’s friends, ready to go up on top of the house where Jesus was and tear a hole in the roof to let their friend down on ropes on his stretcher.

Out of the chaos that must have ensued… do you think perhaps there maybe some shouting and protests and maybe even tussles? … order emerged, physical and spiritual. The result was praise.

Set the image of the friends in the Gospel against the image in the Collect, which returns to the them of “the enemy”.

Grant to Your Church, we beseech You, almighty God, that, united by the Holy Spirit, she may in no way be harmed by any assault of the enemy.

In the midst of the joyful antiphons there is this stark reminder that, because I am in Brooklyn as I write, “It ain’t over, ’till it’s over.” Okay, okay, Yogi was a Yankee rather than a Dodger (aka Traitorous Dogs). And, yes, this was a check to see if you were still reading.

The Postcommunion seems to echo what happened in the Gospel, thus tying our minds in the moment of Communion to the healing, strengthening effects of the Eucharist:

“We who have received the gift of Your Blessed Sacrament, O Lord, humbly pray that what You have taught us to do in commemoration of You, may profit and help us in our weakness.”

As I write, I think of all your priests being the friends who tear a hole in the roof to get you to the Lord. The friends lowered the man. The priests bring the Lord to you. The fabric of the roof, Heaven, is torn open. The division of heaven from earth is ripped asunder and Christ is called down, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity for your healing and joy.

We must turn this sock inside out. you lay people pull that roof apart and get us priests to the Lord. You do the heavy… lowering. We would be lost without you, frozen, unable to move.

You are our stretcher bearers.

This brings up the situation of many priests today, who have been canceled in serious ways, or mistreated and subjected to enduring moral injury.

St. Ambrose of Milan (+397) has this in his Commentary on Luke:

What is this bed/pallet which [the paralytic] is commanded to take up, as he is told to rise? It is the same bed which was washed [with tears] by David every night, the bed of pain on which our soul lay sick with cruel torment of conscience. But if anyone has acted according to Christ’s teaching, it is already not a bed of pain but of repose. Indeed, though the compassion of the Lord, who turns for us the sleep of death into the grace of delight, that which was death begins to be repose. Not only is he ordered to take up his bed, but also to go home to his house, that is, to return to Paradise. That is our true home which first fostered man, lost not lawfully, but by deceit. Therefore, rightfully is the home restored, since he who would abolish the obligation of deceit and reform the law has come. (Exp Luca 5.14)

The healing of the paralytic results in the paralytic being able to “go home”.

In a similar way, Christ in His Holy Church causes us to rise when we are paralyzed in our sins.

Not just in our sins, but also the memory of those sins.

Not just the memory of sins, but the memory of injury by others.

I want consciously here to connect for you the healing of the paralytic, with the help of his friends and the creative breaking of barriers, to the process and the results of purification of memory.

A first step is, of course, thorough examination of conscience. Also,…

GO TO CONFESSION!

One of the effects of the Sacrament of Penance is strengthening again sin.

For most of us, most of the time, the confessional is palette from which the Lord causes us to arise, freed from sorrow, bondage, and new life.

Posted in SESSIUNCULA | Tagged Octave of Pentecost
1 Comment

ROME 06/1 Day… My View For Awhile

Posted on 1 June 2023 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

The Ave Maria Bell won’t be heard at 2100.

While I did see the Roman sunrise at 0535 I won’t see the 2041 sunset.

I’ll be chasing the sun as I wing westward.

Here is the last home cooked meal with the last bunch of flowers. Not that I’m feeling melancholy or anything.

Fresh tomato, peas, cappers, tuna, hot and black pepper.

Last night a last short stroll. Of course the so-called connection won’t let me upload. Later.

The altar where I have been saying Mass for benefactors and donors.

The 16th c. Organ has arrived and it is being tuned. Exciting.

Which last breakfast is mine?

Sigh.

And here I am again. Security was weird. At a couple points I was the only traveler! I’m not complaining!

Great pizza in the lounge. Horrible for connectivity. Trying to write and post this has given me a headache.

More later.

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
13 Comments

Pentecost Thursday: When there is no joy in “dustville”.

Posted on 1 June 2023 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Pentecost Thursday.

The Roman Station is really St. Lawrence outside the walls, which is where it would have been in the Easter Octave on Wednesday.

However, given that yesterday was an Ember Day, and Ember Wednesdays are at S. Maria Major… there it is. Things give way. On early lists, the Stations of Pentecost week seem to have followed those of Easter. But Ember Days were reestablished, as mentioned yesterday, by Gregory VII, Hildebrand.

So, today we have a trace of the more ancient connection with the Easter Thursday Station of the Church of the Twelve Apostles.

In the Gospel from Luke 9, Jesus sends the Apostles out with authority to heal and cast out demons. In the Epistle from Acts 8, Deacon Philip is in Samaria doing the same. Perhaps there was some confusion about the Deacon and the Apostle, since the Apostle Philip’s tomb is at Twelve Apostles. Oh well.

For the rest, the remaining Mass propers are like those of Pentecost Sunday.

I note in the Epistle, “And the crowds with one accord gave heed to what was said by Philip… So there was great joy in that city.”

I note in the Gospel, “And whatever house you enter, stay there, and do not depart from thence. And whosoever will not receive you – go forth from that town, and shake off even the dust from your feet for a witness against them.”

A common thread here is docility and acceptance of the Good News.

Where there is acceptance there is healing.

Where there is not, there is no joy in “dustville”.

The Lord Himself established the attitude that the Apostles (bishops and priests today?) should have.

In Latin, “étiam púlverem pedum vestrórum excútite in testimónium supra illos“. The Greek says, “kai koniortos“. In Greek, kai is a conjunction, a copulative like “and”. It is also a form of karate associated with a particular kind of snake practiced in the Receda area of L.A. where the vampires pass by on Ventura Boulevard. Sometimes I just want to see if anyone really reads this stuff. However, kai, the Greek particle, not the karate, can also lend greater force to what follows, which is how we get that Latin etiam that comes into English as ” don’t just leave that town but even shake the dust off your feet”. Leave it and forget it and the dust – whence all of them were made and to which they will return – will remain there as a reminder of what they lost: life, joy.

When dust is in the picture, something is up. Or rather, down.

This points to consequences for all of us when we reject something from God.

What pops into my mind is the rejection of a vocation.

For example, say someone has a vocation to marry, but… won’t. That person will be restless. Say someone doesn’t have the vocation to marry, but… does… and then abandons the marriage. Sorry, can’t do that.

Say the same about religious life or about priesthood.

Yes yes, there are ways to deal with “being in the wrong place”.

In canon law there is acknowledgement that marriages at times don’t work. The innocent one of the couple could in, for example, cases of infidelity, adultery, seek a separation from the other (not divorce, mind you). Canon Law even states that the bishop can be involved in this decision. This can be misunderstood by the poorly informed as asking a bishop to grant something so there can be a civil divorce, which clearly is a misunderstanding of the law: bishops aren’t going to be involved in divorces. Or they shouldn’t be. Similarly, there are paths for clerics to be relieved of the obligations of the clerical state.

However, both of these are exceptions and exceptions are … well… exceptions. They, by definition, are not the norm.

In most cases the better path forward is to bear the crosses that flow from the obligations one has chosen, that come from choosing that fork in the road rather than the other, and apply oneself with humble perseverance for the sake of saving one’s soul.

Life is short and eternity is long.

This pretty much flies in the face of the squishy messaging in certain documents with infamous footnotes that present the hard aspects of vocations as nearly impossible “ideals” that no one can be expected to be able to reach. Hence, there ought to be even greater and multiple paths “out” of whatever hard situation one finds oneself in. It’s a manifestation, I think, of a Christian-lite, one without the Cross, and maybe a dose of … wokey confusion about reality.

It is an aspect of fallen human nature to tend toward the easy path and to avoid the crosses life brings. We should be wary of this tendency. I do NOT mean that must always choose the way of greater suffering. But I think it is good to double-check oneself, even to consult, to determine what God wants.

Going back to Luke 9, when the Lord sent the Apostles out with His authority, He also told them not to take those things along by which they could possibly make a living or easily obtain creature comfort: they were to rely only on “the sending” … which was from Jesus alone. That probably entailed hunger and thirst during their mission. Not to mention anxiety and danger.

It was a harder path. But it was one which brought them their joy later.

It also provided an opportunity for people to be generous to them when the Apostles instruction, healing and freedom.

Posted in SESSIUNCULA | Tagged Octave of Pentecost
7 Comments

Pentecost Wednesday: another ranting reflection

Posted on 31 May 2023 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Pentecost Wednesday: Ember Day

Another Octave ramble which might have a couple of surprises.

Back in the day, 5th c or so, Pentecost was enriched with an Octave, thus extending the festal character of the great feast. For a while they were bumped. In the 11th c. St. Pope Gregory VII, Hildebrand, reinstated them while keeping the festive tone of the Octave.

If the Octave of Pentecost can be abolished for the Novus Ordo calendar, it can be reinstated, just as ~~Benedict XVI~~ John Paul II reinstated “Prayers over the people” during Lent.

If the Ember Days can be de facto suppressed through lack of interest and ignorance, they can be reinstated.

Oh Lord, please send us another Hildebrand?

Consider what his approach to “Eucharistic consistency” (or is it “Eucharistic coherence”…) might be. Consider what he would do about prelates who waffle on morals, who do nothing about schlock worship, etc.

Today’s Roman Station is St. Mary Major, the place traditionally for scrutinies of candidates for ordination. If I had my way, we would call some back for scrutinies. In my day in Rome, before ordination to the diaconate and to the priesthood we had pretty thorough “scrutinies”. We went around a big room from table to where there was a priest scrutineer who would interrogate us about the material of which he was an expert. These guys were usually professors from the Pontifical Universities.

Because this is an Ember Day, we have, first, two readings from Acts 2 and Acts 5, with a “Flectamus genua” for good measure, and then a Gospel pericope from the Bread of Life discourse in John 6.

Acts 2 relates the descent of the Holy Spirit and then Peter’s preaching with the conversion of many. Peter talks about the wonders people will see.

Acts 5 opens with the sad case of Ananias and Sapphira. Later the Apostles are imprisoned, but angels let them out. When the big shots started to freak out, Gamaliel counseled patience to see if what the Apostles were doing was from God. In this reading, the Apostles work many signs, many cures. Even Peter’s shadow cured. Many believed.

Two points spring to mind on this beautiful Roman morning, my last full day in Rome.

First, Gamaliel counseled patience. If what the Apostles were doing was from God, it would endure and produce good things. If it was not, that would become clear. Would that today our Whatevers High Atop The Thing would have even a hair’s breadth of such wise patience when it comes to something that really doesn’t need to prove itself because it already had a track record of centuries.

The Vetus Ordo has a track record and the Novus Ordo does not. Rather, the NO’s incipient track record isn’t that impressive.

On the contrary. Ratzinger said, way back in the day, and I’ve been saying picking up on him that the two Rites (that’s what they are, let’s not kid ourselves) should be freely offered in the best way, most faithful way possible, side by side. People will show us the way forward. But progressivists, you see, the catholic Left, liberals (from the Latin “free”, meaning for a liberal you are only “free” to agree with liberals), are afraid of freedom when it comes to that which stands as a bulwark against erosion of doctrine and – wait for it – morals. There is nothing to fear from the Vetus Ordo and the people who want it, unless, that is, you fear large, happy, devout families with many children who participate in the life of the Church, which they love.

Second, Peter’s shadow healed. John was the voice and Christ the Word. “He who hears you hears me”. “Whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven…”. “This is my Body…”. The farther we get from the light source, the weaker and fuzzier the shadow. TRADITION keeps us close to the light source. Hence, Tradidi quod et accepi.

The Mass texts today shift to different themes. Pentecost and Monday and Tuesday (before Ember Days) all contained protection from harm by the enemy.

Something about the Descent of the Spirit has always twitched at my mind. Acts 2:1 says “they were all together in one place”. But there were quite a few believers at the time, at least 120. All in one place? The upper room wasn’t big enough. BUT… this is the Feast of Weeks, Shavuot!

They were not in the Upper Room. They were in the TEMPLE.

Males were to go to the Temple for the Shavuot – Pentecost – spring harvest festival celebration involving the wave offerings in the Temple of the harvest fruits, loaves baked from the first sheaves. The Temple was certainly “big enough” for all the disciples. And that is where they were! Acts 2:2 says a wind came (the Holy Spirit) and “filled the house”, Greek oikos. Oikos can be house, of course, but it can also mean any building, including the Temple, the house of God (Matthew 21:13; Mark 11:17; Luke 19:46; John 2:16f, (Isaiah 56:5, 7); cf. Luke 11:51; Acts 7:47, 49). Jesus refers to His Body as a Temple using “house”.

Remember what we read at the end of Luke 24:50-53 and the account of the Ascension of the Lord?

Then [Jesus] 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. And they returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God.

They were continually in the Temple. Why? Among other reasons, Shavuot. When Acts says they were in the “house”, they were in the Temple. Jewish festivals looked back to historical events and they looked forward to something yet to be fulfilled. Shavuot looked back to the descent of God on the mountain in the fiery presence cloud, shekinah, when God gave the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments. Shavuot looked forward to the return of the fiery “presence cloud” to the Temple which had departed with the destruction of the first Temple. That’s Pentecost: Shavuot fulfilled. The first fruits this time being the 3000 baptized.

What happens after the mighty wind and tongues of fire? A huge crowd hears Peter’s sermon. Where was that? In the Temple. When did it take place? At 9:00 in the morning. Remember the line about drunkenness?

This was the 3rd hour of the morning and the time of the tamid, the sacrifice of the first of the two daily lambs.

To baptize all those people they would have needed a place with a lot of water. There was such a place nearby, pools for ritual cleansing before going to the Temple.

I am reminded of Ezekiel 6:26:

“A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”

A new SPIRIT I will put within you. I will take away this TEMPLE of STONE and give you a TEMPLE of FLESH.

This took place in the Temple which lost the glory cloud of fire of the presence of God. The presence of God as fire returns and settles not in the Holy Holies where the Ark was, but rather on the New Ark, Mary and on the Apostles and, through baptism in the hearts of the new believers, new Temples of the Holy Spirit.

In the Introit of today’s Mass we pray: “O God, when You went forth at the head of Your people, making a passage for them, dwelling in their midst…” A reference to the fire cloud that led the people. In the Collect we pray something that echoes that image of the guiding freedom-bringing fire: “May the Paraclete Who proceeds from You, enlighten our minds, we beseech You, O Lord, and guide us to all truth, as Your Son has promised.”

In the Second Collect, remember it is an Ember Day with two first readings, we get this. See if it doesn’t bind together my thoughts, above: