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{]:¬)

PRIEST HUNT: Europe – Mozarabic Rite

Posted on 29 November 2019 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I was contacted in regard to finding a priest in Europe who can travel and who can celebrated the Mozarabic Rite.

Yes, you read that correctly.

Drop me a line. HERE

Posted in Priests and Priesthood, The Campus Telephone Pole | Tagged Mozarabic
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PODCAzT 179: Kwasniewski on the myth of ancient Communion in the hand

Posted on 27 November 2019 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

We welcome as our guest… Peter Kwasniewski and an article he recently posted at LifeSite about Communion in the hand.

Not long ago, surveys from the Pew Research center uncovered that a huge number of Catholics do not believe in the Church’s teaching about transubstantiation. This is so even among regular church goers. It seems to me that this could only be so among regular church goers, slightly more likely to have had a little catechesis of value, that the have seen with they own eyes for decades the lack reverence shown by priests and congregants for the Eucharist. Rather, they have not see much reverence shown for the Eucharist from priests or coreligionists. Hence, because lex orandi lex credendi, because they way we pray has a reciprocal relation with what we believe, they just don’t believe that under the appearance of bread and wine we have Christ whole and entire, Body Blood Soul and Divinity. They see hosts treated casually, handled by anyone and everyone, literally handled, and they conclude that the hosts must not be that important. They hear the suboptimal music, see the cheap vestments, watch the sloppy ministry at the altar, note the fact that everyone goes to communion without a single admonishment about confession, and they conclude that the Host isn’t much after all. Very many people have come to see Communion as, “they put the white thing in our hand and then we sing a song”. Communion is a sign of nonjudgmental affirmation a sign that you are in the club.

A major contributor to the diving numbers who believe the Church’s teaching on the Eucharist has to be distribution of Communion in the hand. The conga line style, and the gimme gesture to sticking hands out, the fact that hordes of the non-ordained themselves troop up to tabernacles and altars and take sacred vessel all diminish what should be, contrarily, built up and augmented with all possible decorum and gravity. You can’t blame people for not believing. They’ve not been handed down what to believe and how.

At LifeSite, there is a good piece by Peter Kwasnieski dated 26 November 2019: Debunking the myth that today’s Communion in the hand revives an ancient custom

That was one of the canards raised by the innovators, a false archeologizing legitimization of protestant style Communion. They said that in the ancient church that’s how it was done, hence, we should do it too. That ignores entirely the fact that, over centuries, as our understanding of the Eucharist grew, so did our rites surrounding the Eucharist. As we learned more and appreciated more and more God’s gift, we adjusted our practice. So, when we see a backsliding to Communion in the hand, we know that something is not right. Moreover, Communion in the hand was not, in the ancient, as advertised.

I am going to read this article by Kwasniewski. Some of you don’t have a lot of time to read. Some of you have a hard time reading. But you can listen. This information deserves wider distribution. And you can always go to the site and print the piece and hand it out.

As you listen, tune your ear for …. I’ll try to mark off the quotes so they are easier to identify.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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You hear in this PODCAzT the wonderful Benedictine nuns of Gower Abbey. US HERE – UK HERE

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Decorum, Hard-Identity Catholicism, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, PODCAzT | Tagged Athanasius Schneider, Communion in the hand, Klaus Gamber, Lex Orandi Lex Credendi, Mystagogical Catecheses, Peter Kwasniewski, St. Cyril of Jerulsalem, We Are Our Rites
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Sunday 8 Dec 2019 – Madison, WI – Card. Burke – Pontifical Mass at the Throne for the Immaculate Conception

Posted on 27 November 2019 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

On Sunday 8 December 2019, at 10 AM at St. Mary’s Church in Pine Bluff, WI, His Eminence Raymond Leo Card. Burke will celebrate a Pontifical Mass at the Throne in the traditional Roman Rite for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, Patroness of the United States.

St. Mary’s in Pine Bluff is located 7 miles west of US 12 (Beltline) south of the intersection of County Road P and Mineral Point Road.

St. Mary’s in Pine Bluff
3673 County Road P
Cross Plains, WI 53528-9179
Email: catholic@tds.net
Phone: (608) 798-2111

stmarypinebluff.com

Posted in The Campus Telephone Pole | Tagged Card. Burke
2 Comments

ASK FATHER: Lighting Advent wreath during Mass – REVISITED

Posted on 27 November 2019 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a reader some years back.

QUAERITUR:

Father, is it appropriate to replace the penitential rite with the lighting of the advent wreath?

No.

Just… no.

The longer explanation is, course, Nooooooooo.

Attention to the wreath during Mass seems like the triumph of low information sentimentality over good Catholic common sense.

I think there is a blessing for a wreath that can be used during Mass in the Ordinary Form on the 1st Sunday of Advent only, and only in countries where it has been approved. That doesn’t apply to other Sundays of Advent. Also, in no way does it substitute for the penitential rite of Mass. You bless the thing, light the candles, Mass goes on as it should according to the book.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, ASK FATHER Question Box, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000 | Tagged ADVENT, Advent wreath
8 Comments

ASK FATHER: How to pray the “Cursing Psalms” against our enemies?

Posted on 26 November 2019 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a reader…

QUAERITUR:

Can you once again address the maledictory Psalms and how to use them? I think you last did so over 3 years ago. Thank you!

Wow. Another third rail question today.

This is what I wrote three years ago in post #87060.

How to pray the “Cursing Psalms” against our enemies

Saturdays are my field days. I field strip my computers (scan, defrag, update etc.), police the Cupboard Under The Stairs, do laundry, try to fill up a garbage bag or two (that’s satisfaction), police both the fridge (especially on a wake-up) and my conscience. Well, that last one I do everyday. Which it ain’t easy in these days of political electioneering and ecclesiastical goat rodeos on nearly every front.

This morning a couple friends with whom I have an instant message group going – often hilarious – mentioned the “maledictory psalms”, also known as the “cursing psalms” and “imprecatory psalms”. They call for judgment and disaster to fall upon the enemies of God and God’s people.

Since I’ve been using the Bux Protocol™ a lot these days, the reference to the maledictory psalms got me thinking about posting on this difficult topic: how to pray for enemies.

Christ the Lord commanded us to love our enemies (Matthew 5:44). And yet a couple dozen or so psalms – which all Christians can use for prayer – seem to wish some pretty dire things on our enemies. And, yes, we have enemies.

Love for “enemy” can be expressed different ways. Love for our enemies does not mean that we must hope that they prosper or succeed in their wicked ways. Love, charity, means that we will their true good. We pray for their salvation. We ask God to use the necessary corrections, chastisements, whatever, to punch through their pride and turn their minds and hearts, even if that means suffering unto loss of limb and life.

A standard list of the maledictory psalms will include – and alert that Psalms are numbered differently in various editions of Scripture and in newer and older books you might consult – 5, 6, 11, 12, 35, 37, 40 52, 54, 56, 58, 69, 79, 83, 137, 139, and 143. Many of these psalms were “edited” or even wholly excluded from the revised Psalter used in the Liturgy of the Hours. However, there are lot’s of maledictions, curses and imprecations throughout the Psalter: 5:10; 6:10; 7:9-16; 10:15; 17:13; 18:40-42; 18:47; 26:4-5; 28:4; 31:17, 18; 35:3-8; 40:14; 54:5; 55:9, 19; 56:7; 58:6-10; 59:ll-15; 68:2; 69 (most of the psalm); 70:2-3; 71:13; 79:6, 12; 83:9-17; 104:35; 109:6-20; 129:5; 137:7-9; 140:8-11; 141: 10; 143:12; 149:6-9.

Of special note are Ps 55, 108, and 136 which give libs a serious case of the collywobbles (except perhaps if they use it against defenders of doctrine and law).

So, what to make of these psalms?

First, since they are the inspired word of Almighty God, we can safely say that they are not bad and they can be used for prayer. St. Augustine believed that every word of the Psalms was Christ speaking to the Father, but in different voices, as the Head, the Body and both together, Christus Totus. I’ll go with Augustine.

That said, it might make the Christian scratch her head when we pray “Blessed be he that shall take and dash thy little ones against the rock” (Ps 137:9).

How to use these psalms in prayer in a way that is pleasing to God and that does not imperil our own salvation by spurring us to soul killing hatred? Isn’t this a serious consideration in these times of aforementioned political circuses and ecclesial misadventure?

One of the best explanations of the maledictory psalms – and therefore how to pray for our enemies – I’ve run across came in a comment made on this very blog under another entry I wrote about the maledictory psalms (thanks Henry Edwards!). Namely, …

In the Introduction (by Pius Parsch) to the Baronius edition of the 1962 Roman Breviary [US HERE – UK HERE], we read that

As Christians we may never wish evil upon a sinner directly and personally, but [NB] these [curse] psalms have nothing to do with personal enmities. The theme of all our praying is God’s kingdom and sin, and the curse passages in the psalms are expressions of absolute protest against evil, sin and hell. Try changing the curses into an expression of divine justice and you pronounce them no longer with your own mouth, but with the mouth of Christ and the Church. The curse thus resembles the woes that our Lord addressed against the Pharisees. There is something quite stirring and grand about these curses. The all-just God steps before us as we pray and warns us of the punishments of hell. [NB: warns us!]

In regard to Psalm 108 (109)—perhaps the most maledictory of all the so-called curse psalms and omitted entirely from the LOH psalter—he says that

Psalm 108 is a curse formula and very difficult to reconcile with the Christian idea of prayer. Let us suppose that the Church or Christ Himself is praying this psalm. Then the curses become no longer wishes, but rather the solemn sentence of divine justice upon unwillingness to repent. With tears in her eyes the Church prays these terrible words–just as Jesus once declaimed his eightfold “Woe is you . . .” against the Pharisees. At the opening of the psalm, the Church laments. In the following two sections, where curses and punishments are asked for, a picture of the everlasting hell is painted for us. The petition which comprises the fourth part of the psalm can be a prayer of the individual soul; I stand terrified before the picture I have seen: “Have mercy on me, a poor weak mortal!”.

While there is a great deal more to be said about the maledictory psalms, that seems a good place to pause so that I can do my job and admonish you.

We members of the Church Militant have enemies. There are the relentless, ineluctable foes which are the world, the flesh and the Devil. There are also the agents of the Devil among us, outside the Church and, verily, inside.

We must strive not to hate enemies, to love enemies with the love that is charity, the love that desires what is truly good for them. If they are doing great harm to our persons, families, nation and Church, yes, we can pray for their conversion or for their ruin lest they continue to do harm and lest they go to Hell. For example, HERE. And while we pray for and against our enemies (and bear wrongs patiently), we must see to it that we don’t go to Hell, either.

As we soldier on through this vale of tears, we must constantly field strip our consciences while asking God for all the graces we need to do His will and to conform ourselves to His will and ways.

And now, from St. Paul’s Second Letter to Timothy 3:11-17:

Persecutions, afflictions: such as came upon me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra: what persecutions I endured, and out of them all the Lord delivered me. And all that will live godly in Christ Jesus, shall suffer persecution. But evil men and seducers shall grow worse and worse: erring, and driving into error. But continue thou in those things which thou hast learned, and which have been committed to thee: knowing of whom thou hast learned them; And because from thy infancy thou hast known the holy scriptures, which can instruct thee to salvation, by the faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture, inspired of God, is profitable to teach, to reprove, to correct, to instruct in justice, That the man of God may be perfect, furnished to every good work.

Finally, since I am trying to fulfill my mission to keep as many of you out of Hell as I can…

GO TO CONFESSION!

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, ASK FATHER Question Box, Linking Back | Tagged Bux Protocol, cursing psalms, Maledictory Psalms, Preserved Killick, Timothy 3:11-17
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ASK FATHER: “I utterly reject Bergoglio, so how can I remain a Catholic?” Fr. Z’s rant and beatdown.

Posted on 26 November 2019 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a reader…

QUAERITUR:

Now, to the point: How can I remain a Catholic when I UTTERLY reject Jorge Bergoglio as a false prophet of the devil? I can in no way continue to acknowledge him during Mass. Going to TLM doesn’t alleviate my doubts. My conscience absolutely forbids me from ever again listening to or acknowledging that man.

This is quite a dilemma for me. I am seriously considering heading to the Orthdox Church or finding a conservative evangelical church.

Hmmm. That seems like a “No” vote for Bergoglio.

I am not going to get into the arguments for or against Francis as pope or antipope. For what I have to say to the idea of leaving the Church because of him, one way or another, I don’t have to get into that controversy.

Why? Holy Catholic Church is indefectible. This is one of the three attributes of the Church, along with authority and infallibility.

Your question holds two possible implications. First, “I don’t like Bergoglio, so I’m going somewhere else.” That’s just whining, like a kid who doesn’t like broccoli and goes hungry.

Otherwise, your implication is that if Francis isn’t really the pope, the Vicar of Christ, then somehow the Church is now defective and you might as well go some place else.

No. And NO! And HELL NO!

If we believe Christ’s promises – and I sure do – then we hold that the Church will not fail even to the end of the world when He returns to take all things to Himself and submit them to the Father.

The Petrine Ministry is part of the fabric of the Church as the Lord designed. Somehow, until the ending of the world, the Church – and hence the papacy – cannot fail, even though we don’t know how.

As necessary as the papacy is, a pope is Christ’s VICAR, not Christ himself. As the sardonic Latin acrostic puts it, a VICARIUS is Vir Inutilis Carens Auctoritate Rare Intelligentiae Umbra Superioris, that is, “A useless man, lacking authority, rarely of intelligence, the shadow of his superior.” That’s every pope, compared to Christ.

It is dangerous to place too much emphasis on any pope.

Look, friend, popes come and popes go. There have been long periods of time between popes. There have been long periods of time when there was terrible confusion about who was the real pope. Even saints got it wrong and backed the wrong guy. For centuries people had no idea who the pope was, even his name, and they lived good Catholic lives, minding their own business and trying to be holy in their vocations.

Popes can be good. Popes can be bad. Popes can have short or long pontificates. Popes can be talented or doddering. Popes can be charming or jerks. Popes can be holy of sinful. Popes can be important or insignificant.

Only one thing is clear about popes, and the Romans get this right: Muore un papa se ne fa un altro… A pope dies, you make another. We make another until Christ returns. Somehow that’s the way our Church will always be even if we don’t like the choice.

As for your chicken-livered notion about going outside the Church, I’ll offer what Lumen gentium 14 teaches:

14. This Sacred Council wishes to turn its attention firstly to the Catholic faithful. Basing itself upon Sacred Scripture and Tradition, it teaches that the Church, now sojourning on earth as an exile, is necessary for salvation. Christ, present to us in His Body, which is the Church, is the one Mediator and the unique way of salvation. In explicit terms He Himself affirmed the necessity of faith and baptism and thereby affirmed also the necessity of the Church, for through baptism as through a door men enter the Church. Whosoever, therefore, knowing that the Catholic Church was made necessary by Christ, would refuse to enter or to remain in it, could not be saved.

Refuse to enter or refuse to remain in the Church knowing that the Catholic Church is necessary? Bad odds.

These are hard times. Confusing. Fearful. Dangerous. But these are the times into which God called us to live. That means he offers us the graces we will need to live our vocations well. It could be that you have to completely tune out of the larger churchy news and put your nose to your personal grindstone and live your vocation well.

God didn’t call us into existence at random, but rather with a plan and a purpose for every one of us. He called YOU, friend, into this life HERE and NOW, not at some other time and place. These are the circumstances of our lives. We are the soldiers of the Church Militant God wants NOW. Are you suffering? Embrace it. Offer it in reparation. Are you afraid? Throw yourself at the feet of the Mother of God and beg her protective mantle. Clasp onto St. Joseph, Defender of the Church.

Fast. Give alms. Pray. But don’t be a coward.

Either pick up your Cross and your sword and get your ass back to the lines or go crawling off somewhere. We’ll do your duty along with our own. Run for the hills. Good luck with that.

I will not run.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, ASK FATHER Question Box, Be The Maquis, Francis, Hard-Identity Catholicism, Si vis pacem para bellum!, The Coming Storm, The future and our choices, Wherein Fr. Z Rants | Tagged Attributes of the Church, extra ecclesiam nulla salus, Francis, indefectibility, LG 14, papacy, Petrine Ministry
54 Comments

ASK FATHER: For the TLM does the tabernacle have to be in the center?

Posted on 26 November 2019 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a reader…

QUAERITUR:

Fr. Z, are there some sorts of specified rubrics for the celebration of Mass in the Extraordinary Form if the tabernacle is off on the side, in what might be termed a side chapel, but is still visible from the pews all the way on the left?

I ask on the basis that the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception has the tabernacle in a chapel on the side, though this seems to be not an identical case. [Separated by an ambulatory aisle and, hence, not morally present in to the sanctuary.]

Is there hopes for having a TLM without having to have the tabernacle repositioned? (This seems to be a bit of a hang-up point on trying to bring the TLM to the parish, and the pastor has told me that it would be immensely expensive to move.)

Given what you wrote, this is no problem whatsoever. There are no special rubrics.

First, if the tabernacle is for some reason not in the center, but in a side chapel, then the Blessed Sacrament is not “present”, even though the chapel might be visible from some parts of the church.

For example, at the great church of the FSSP in Rome, the traditional parish of the City SS. Trinità dei Pellegrini, when there is a bishop as celebrant, the Blessed Sacrament is quite properly removed from the main tabernacle at the altar in the sanctuary, to a tabernacle at one of the side altars, half way up the nave of the church. Those congregants who would pass before that tabernacle would want to pay their respects to the Eucharistic Lord, but the action in the sanctuary goes on as usual, that is, without the presence of the Blessed Sacrament. At Communion time, one of the priests goes with servers to the side chapel altar and retrieves the Eucharist for distribution. They process back to the sanctuary with the ombrellino over the priest with the ciboria.

The TLM does not require the presence of the Blessed Sacrament in the tabernacle. As a matter of fact, for many hundreds of years Holy Mass was celebrated daily by thousands upon thousands of priests at side altars of churches. Moreover, even as priests celebrated privately at their side altars, it could be that the Blessed Sacrament was in the tabernacle at the main altar and that Mass was also, simultaneously, at the main altar. That is often the state of affairs when I have said Mass in the afternoon at SS. Trinità dei Pellegrini.

No, this is not a problem.

If the tabernacle is not in the center, you can have the Traditional Latin Mass with no problem at all. Anyone going close to where the tabernacle is, however, should reverence the Eucharistic Lord, but it sounds as if that’s not a problem in what you described.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, ASK FATHER Question Box | Tagged tabernacle
6 Comments

The importance of saying the black and doing the red

Posted on 26 November 2019 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

A cautionary tale. If you don’t know what you are doing, don’t just charge ahead. Wait for the MC. Say the black. Do the red.

That was painful.

The video of the whole Mass. For that snippet, start at about 1:31:00.

Click!

UPDATE

By way of a contrast…

Here is the TLM celebrated during the 2019 NCYC in Indianapolis on 22 November at St. John’s Catholic Church. The church was full. One of my correspondents wrote that they’ve had a TLM for several years and each year the attendance has grown. They now have to go to a large church for it.

The music was Palestrina’s Missa Brevis.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes | Tagged Say The Black - Do The Red
6 Comments

What’s happening to Catholics in China?

Posted on 26 November 2019 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

The Vatican changed its stance toward the Church’s presence in China. What fruits have come from this change?

The following piece has lots of photos at the original page, which you can visit.

From Bitter Winter:

Xi Jinping Portraits Replace Catholic Symbols in Churches

Places of worship refusing to be controlled by the state are being shut down, while government-run churches are used to worship the Chinese Communist Party.
by Tang Zhe

A Catholic Church in Ji’an, a prefecture-level city in the southeastern province of Jiangxi, was built this year at the cost of more than one million RMB (over $ 140,000), which had been raised by believers. It was named “The True and Original Source of the Universe” (萬有真原), a reference to the name inscribed in 1711 on a plaque the Kangxi Emperor (Xuanje, 1654–1722) donated to a Catholic church in Beijing. Not long after it opened its doors, the church became the target of the local government’s persecution.

In late September, local officials ordered the congregation to paint over the sign with the name of the church, replace it with “Follow the Party, Obey the Party, and Be Grateful to the Party,” and display the national flag at the entrance.

What has hurt the congregations the most was the removal of a painting of the Virgin Mary with the Christ Child, later discarded into a dark corner of the church. Instead, a portrait of president Xi Jinping was hung in the center of one of the walls, surrounded by propaganda slogans on both sides.

A few days later, officials confiscated the keys to the church and locked all its doors and windows. The congregation lost their place of worship.

The same month, a Catholic meeting venue that is not part of the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association in Jiangxi’s Poyang county was ordered to cease religious activities. Local officials threatened to revoke retirement pensions of elderly congregation members if another meeting were to be held. The church’s cross, a painting of the Virgin Mary, and religious couplets were removed, and portraits of Xi Jinping and Mao Zedong were displayed instead.

[…]

May God help our brothers and sisters.

Posted in Modern Martyrs, Our Catholic Identity, Pò sì jiù |
5 Comments

Fr. Z’s Kitchen: Christmas Pudding 2019

Posted on 25 November 2019 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

A few people asked me to post about making this year’s Christmas Pudding. Yesterday was “Stir Up Sunday” (¡Hagan lío! Sunday?), the last of the liturgical year. It is so-called because of the first words of the Collect. But I’ve written on that elsewhere.

Putting together my mise en place. I’m using Delia’s recipe, with variations. That requires measurement by weight and volume for liquids, thus, the graduated cylinder.

The least pleasant aspect of the recipe is the preparation of the suet. I lopped some o’ this here hunk off and made sure it were froze some.

Grate the suet. Add the bread crumbs and blend together. As it was I had to use a multi-bladed pastry cutter.

Adding all the ingredients and ticking them off the list, so that I don’t miss any. I couldn’t find my usual zester for the orange and lemon, so I zested with an erzatz zester, I tested before hand, then rested and zested the aforesaid lemon. Here is the bested orange, zested.

Into the eggs beaten with bourbon (not rum this year) goes the stout. There is also barleywine.

Now it goes to the fridge for the night. The next morning, that is this morning, in went the self-rising flour. I had to concoct some, with baking soda and salt.

Yes, if you were about to ask, I added more bourbon.

To grease the pudding basins, I used pure lard.

The toughest part of the whole process is tying the string around the basins. I made loops to facilitate their removal from the large pot where they are, as I write this, being steamed.

I’ll give them about 8 hours.

You can help me with the ingredients and win my gratitude as well as remembrance among the benefactors I pray for at Mass.

In the meantime, as I posted in years past, here are images from a book I recall from my ever more distant childhood, depicting “Max” preparing what I now – at long last – understand to be a Christmas Pudding! As a ‘Mer’can kid I had no idea what he was making – meatloaf? – or why he was trying to light it on fire.

Max was created by Pericle Giovannetti for Punch.