A priest’s thought after going ‘ad orientem’

Posted on 10 December 2018 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From an old friend of mine in my native place, Fr Tom Dufner, a great priest.

 

We’ve been doing ad orientem at daily Mass on and off for a few months. We’ve put several articles in the bulletin to prepare the way. This Sunday we preached on ad orientem at all the Masses and celebrated facing the liturgical east at all Masses! It was well received.

I was so moved during the evening mass I almost wept bowing low for the priest’s Communion prayers. I found myself using a different voice. At the gospel I use a proclamation voice, and when facing the people I use something similar during the Eucharistic Prayer, though directed to the Father. But now I found myself using a quieter voice, almost intimate, though overheard by everyone because of the microphone. It became more personal. I could feel the gaze of the congregation upon me, but they were with me in a new way. They weren’t just watching. They were praying.

The ad orientem direction tends to move the Mass from an informal communal meal, (worse still, a celebration of ourselves), to the realm of a sacrificial banquet.  The sacrificial aspect is definitely more pronounced. The prayers are directed to God the Father of all and the Real Presence of Christ seems to emerge. We are drawn into an “I-Thou” relationship.

It seems to require a wider and more beautiful altar than our postage stamp, but that is for another day.

That’s terrific news. I am so pleased.

Fathers, take note!

Posted in Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, Mail from priests, Turn Towards The Lord | Tagged
14 Comments

Priests and Latin. Wherein Fr. Z rants.

Posted on 10 December 2018 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Since I posted on the issue of the Latin text of Benedict’s resignation and brought up, again, the issue of poor to zero Latin preparation of seminarians and priests, I have to make a few observations.

Fathers.  If you belong to the Latin Church, if you are priests of the Latin Rite, there is no excuse for you not to know – and to able to pronounce properly – at least sacramental forms in Latin, together with some other basics that belong in our priestly toolbox.  Some of you might say, “But we were never taught!”

Fine.  The burden is now on you.

Today I had a note from someone who observed that, during a baptism in Latin the priest mispronounced the Latin to the point that the writer didn’t know if the form was valid or not.   As it turns out, if I understood correctly, it wasn’t so bad that it invalidated the sacrament.

However, there should never be a question in people’s minds about the validly of sacraments!   This is not rocket science, friends.  Sacraments have matter and form.  It is necessary that the priest be sure that both are in order.  The last thing there should ever be is a doubt about whether or not a sacrament was administered.

If we were to look into the basics of other professions and found that their practitioners didn’t know or couldn’t even pronounce the fundamental terms of formulae of their field, we would hold them in contempt.

Imagine someone teaching French lit who couldn’t even pronounce French names or terms.   How about a pharmacist who has no idea how drugs interact (or who can’t pronounce their names)?

Let’s get serious.

Our Catholic identity has undergone a series of devastating blows from the 60’s onward.  One of them was the systematic and purposeful elimination of Latin from curricula and its denial to seminarians and priests.   With the elimination of Latin, priestly identity was horribly affected.  That, in turn, had its own knock on effect among the people of God. The same goes for the systematic destruction of Latin liturgy, with the subsequent slamming and locking of the treasury of the Church’s music, so important in worship.

Devastation.

There is something seriously wrong in the identity of the Church if its priests have no idea of the language of their Rite.

And consider that the Code of Canon Law requires that seminarians be “very well trained” in Latin before ordination.   At ordinations, some official has to stand up and attest before the Church and God that the ordinands were properly formed.  But if they were not given Latin, were they?!?  Deacons and priests of the Latin Church who can’t even pronounce three words together without making a hash of it?

Look.  Some people have better language acquisition aptitudes than others.  And we know that with age, language learning abilities don’t usually improve.  But, I still hold that that those are not adequate excuses not to try, to try really hard, if necessary.

Fathers, for the love of God, learn at least how to pronounce Latin.

You can do it.  Get those ears and pathways open.

I’ll do what I can to help.  I had already started, long ago, on series of podcasts called “What Does The Prayer Really Sound Like” or “PRAYERCAzTs”.  They are still available on this blog, just search at the bottom menus.   I can do more if they would be helpful.

 

 

 

Posted in Latin, Wherein Fr. Z Rants | Tagged
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My View For Awhile: ”Festina Lente” Edition

Posted on 10 December 2018 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I made the decision to go to NYC last night.

My View For Awhile: ”Festina Lente” Edition

My ribs are still sore but now much less. My shoulder is still pesky. My foot keeps me moving quite slowly. I am determined to be patient, ask for help (harder than you might think), and – this time – use cabs and Uber rather than my usual charging around and subways.

I am not if this will be an official visit, without seeing at least one subway rat.

My trip to the airport at oh-dark-thirty was facilitated by prepositioning everything the night before in even greater detail. I’ll get more painkillers on board once they give us something to eat on the plane. Happily it is non-stop and I was upgraded.

So, a new way of visiting NYC begins. However, this is worth the inconvenience. My good friend Fr Murray will receive an award tonight; there should also be quite a few people of my acquaintance.

I may need a warmer sock.

UPDATE

MECHANICAL PROBLEM has driven us off the plane.

I’m trying to get something to eat.

UPDATE

They are now talking in terms of HOURS of delay.

UPDATE

I must admit to being rather low in spirits at the moment.  Right now, there is a time for the flight that could get me into Manhattan in time for the event tonight.  However, if there are any more delays, I would miss a major reason for my trip.  Yes, I have friends to see as well, but this is just …. grim.

UPDATE

They are now promising a plane, en route, from Des Moines. If all goes perfectly now, I will probably make my event.

UPDATE

We are now boarded. LET’S GO!

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
12 Comments

Your Sunday Sermon Notes

Posted on 9 December 2018 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Was there a good point made in the sermon you heard during your Mass to fulfill your Sunday Obligation?

Let us know.

I made three points.

One was about asking for miracles, while explaining the miracle for the cause of St. Juan Diego, whose feast it is/

Another, about John the Baptist and making acts of faith.

Another, about how the Lord praised certain people, as points of reflection for how we use or misuse praise.

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
5 Comments

Of getting Latin wrong, corrections, and of priests and their Latin or lack thereof

Posted on 9 December 2018 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Of getting Latin wrong, corrections, and of priests and their Latin or lack thereofI have notes from people asking about something that my friend Ann Barnhardt wrote about the Latin text of the address Benedict XVI gave when he announced that he was going to abdicate.  Ann contended that the Latin, as written and pronounced, indicated that Benedict did not truly resign.  She took a subjunctive vacet to to be potential and to mean that the See of Peter “might/could” be vacant, not that it “will/shall” be vacant.  What she didn’t know to account for was a pesky ut indicated the result of the action of resigning and, hence, the subjunctive was needed, vacet. In English, it has to sound future.  Blah blah.  She got out too far over her Latin skiis with this one but, to her credit, she posted an update HERE.

In her original post, she made some comments about priests not knowing Latin.

Yes, friends, this is a problem.  I think that Latin Rite priests – in their copious free time – would do well to work on Latin, the language of their Rite.  Makes sense, no?  Would it be hard?  Damn straight.  I am, however, encouraged by the story of the converted Ignatius of Loyola, sitting with children in Latin class, catching up.  And I am not unsympathetic.  I work on languages for the interest and to keep my mind active.  I suspect that for most priests Latin is to them what Japanese is to me: hard.

There are all sorts of funny stories out there about clerics and their lack of Latin.  My favorite is about the simple country priest who walked down the road to meet the bishop who was riding out on the appointed day for a parish visitation.  As the parish priest drew close to the bishop and the rest of his retinue, to the astonishment of all, Father, after greeting the bishop bowed low to the bishop’s horse.   “Why, Father,” quoth the bishop, are you bowing to my horse?”  The priest, momentarily flummoxed, responded “Your Grace, do we not say every day during Holy Mass, ‘equum et salutare‘?”

brrrrDMP

Yes, folks, be sure to tip your waitresses.  I’m at HaHa’s in Manhattan next week.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Latin, Lighter fare | Tagged
22 Comments

A conflicted Fishwrap v. Francis on homosexuals in seminary and priesthood

Posted on 8 December 2018 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

A conflicted Fishwrap v. Francis on homosexuals in seminary and priesthoodIt took a while.  They probably needed to get the ringing in their ears to stop after being gobsmacked.

The National Sodomitical Reporter (aka Fishwrap) hardly loses any opportunity to defend that which is contrary to nature.

However, Fishwrap is also mired in the incontinent papalotry which has seized the Left.

So, Francis states clearly that homosexuals are not to be admitted to the priesthood.  What on earth are they to do?!?

In this case, their allegiance to sodomy has trumped their other loyalties.

Case in point at Fishwrap, the meanderings of their lesbian authoress Jamie Manson, wholly committed to the cause, to the point that she takes it to Francis.

So, what are ‘deep-seated homosexual tendencies’ anyway?

The pope who once famously said about gay priests, “Who am I to judge?”, is judging again.

In a newly published, book-length interview, Pope Francis has reasserted his worries about the presence of gay men in the clergy and of gays and lesbians in consecrated life.

His statement is a response to this question, posed by the interviewer, Claretian Fr. Fernando Prado: “It is not a secret that in consecrated life and in the clergy there are also people with homosexual tendencies. What can you say about that?”

Francis offers a response that is rather meandering, and even muddled in some parts. He claims that homosexuality is “fashionable” in some societies and that this “mentality also influences the life of the Church.”

[…]

What is really interesting, is that she doesn’t cut Francis any slack.  And she even takes it to fellow lefties for trying to reinterpret what he said until it doesn’t mean what it meant (a common tactic on that side).

“For this reason,” Francis says, “the Church recommends that people with this deep-seated tendency not be accepted into ministry or into consecrated life. Their place is not in ministry or in consecrated life.”

A number of progressive Catholics have rushed to Francis’ defense. Some argue that he is only opposed to priests and religious who break their vows of celibacy. Others insist that he did not include heterosexuals in his condemnation of celibacy-breakers because the interviewer’s question was specifically about gay priests and gay and lesbian religious.

But to apologize for Francis in these ways is to deny what he has said previously about homosexuality and about admitting gay men to the priesthood.

An example, is found also at Fishwrap.  Jesuit Thomas Reese with ultra-liberal RNS said… get this…

Others interpreted “deep-seated” as something akin to “uncontrollable” and therefore incapable of observing celibacy. In this interpretation, “deep-seated heterosexuality” would also be a problem. If the tendency was not “deep-seated,” if he could live a celibate life, then the man could enter the seminary and become a priest.

I guess you can be… what?… too heterosexual?  Yes, ladies and gentleman, Jesuits!

Back to task at hand.  Jamie goes on to deconstruct the phrase “deep-seated homosexual tendencies”, which the CCE’s 2005 used in their document on the homosexuals in seminaries and the priesthood (hint = no!).   She slides deeper and deeper into word salad.

In the end, she turns on Francis.

Regardless of his motivations, Francis’ characterizations of gays and lesbians and his notion of “deep-seated homosexual tendencies” will only foster the toxic homophobic attitudes that are already so prevalent in seminaries and religious communities, as well as in the wider church. In his attempt to discuss “the strength of a vocation,” he has only weakened what little hope LGBTQ Catholics still have for his pontificate.

In general, with Fishwrap and their papalotrous allies, there is hardly anything that Francis could cook up that they wouldn’t obstinately applaud.  Were Francis to stand at the beach and command that the tide not roll in, they would alternate between begging him to keep trying and attestations that the spiritually, at least, tide had ceased its progress at his behest.  They might out-Mottram Mottram.

Poor Fishwrap.

Francis said, in his interview book, “the Church recommends that people with this deep-seated tendency not be accepted into ministry or into consecrated life. Their place is not in ministry or in consecrated life.”  Back in May he told Italian bishops, “If you have even the slightest doubt, it is better not to let them in.”

Poor, poor readers of Fishwrap.

Here is a does of clarity.

As the late Bp. Morlino explained, if a man is attracted to men rather than women, then he is not attracted to marriage.  If he is not attracted to marriage, then giving up marriage  isn’t a sacrifice.  If he is celibate, unmarried, even if there is abstinence in body, the homosexual’s attitude of mind and heart cannot be, “I’m sacrificing marriage and it hurts!”  Moreover, I’ll add, the spousal relationship of the priest and the Church is deeply compromised when the man has these disordered attractions.

There.

Posted in Liberals, Sin That Cries To Heaven | Tagged , , , ,
18 Comments

On this day in 2005 …

Posted on 8 December 2018 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Today is the 13th birthday of the blog.

I started it originally for the purpose of creating an online archive for my weekly articles for The Wanderer.  It rapidly grew into something more than that.

You readers have been very good to me over the years.

My first post was of a view from the window of my apartment in Rome.

 

On this day in 2005 ...

Some years later the blog looked like this…

On this day in 2005 ...

I sense that some changes are coming.

 

Posted in Just Too Cool |
28 Comments

Help a young entrepreneur!

Posted on 8 December 2018 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Let’s give this guy a boost.  A young entrepreneur reached out to me for help with his project.  He started something called Crown and Stars, clearly in honor of the Blessed Virgin.

He told me that he wants to make…

Catholic and prolife shirts available that are: thought provoking, grab your attention, conversation starters.

They do that, I think.

If he can sell about 10 more shirts, then Amazon (ALWAYS use my link!) will allow him to make more designs available.

Whaddya say?

>>HERE<<

Some of them are pretty nice.  Just a few…

Help a young entrepreneur!

Help a young entrepreneur!

Help a young entrepreneur!

Help a young entrepreneur!

Posted in The Campus Telephone Pole |
6 Comments

7 Dec – Titanic, intriguing St Ambrose of Milan, bishop and doctor

Posted on 7 December 2018 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

7 Dec - Titanic, intriguing St Ambrose of Milan, bishop and doctorToday is the feast of St. Ambrose of Milan, a titanic figure of the early Church, massively influential, endlessly intriguing.  He died in 397 and is entombed in Milan, where you can visit and venerate his bones, which were recently examined and verified.  HERE

In the past I have written quite a few posts about St. Ambrose, including one about St. Edith Stein’s dialogue between Ambrose and Augustine, whom Ambrose would baptize.  HERE

I’ve also written about how Jerome simply couldn’t stand Ambrose and how he railed against him.  HERE

This year, I would point you all to one of the better books about Ambrose, written by the priest who helped to blow the whistle, as it were, on the disgraced Theodore McCarrick, formerly of the College of Cardinals and perv.  I wonder how Jerome… and Ambrose and Augustine would write about him.  Hmmm.

If you want to know more about Ambrose, and I am sure that you do, check out Ambrose by Boniface Ramsey. US HERE – UK HERE

7 Dec - Titanic, intriguing St Ambrose of Milan, bishop and doctor

I also have a few oldie PODCAzTs that touch on Ambrose.  Wow… some are ten years old.

Posted in Saints: Stories & Symbols | Tagged
4 Comments

UPDATE on injuries and recovery with heartfelt thanks

Posted on 7 December 2018 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

UPDATE 7 Dec 2018:

UPDATE on injuries and recovery with heartfelt thanksMany people have sent notes asking how things are going.   I can give this report.

First, I was able to get up and, with some assistance, get to church last night for the Requiem for Bp. Morlino.  I gave the sermon at the end.  I managed with the aid of a cane, rather than crutches and I didn’t need the wheelchair to get myself down the loooong hallway to the entrance where I live.  Pain killers help.

My chest is still pretty sore.  Coughing, sneezing are not moments I relish.  My right shoulder isn’t cooperating very much.  I suspect I’ll have to have some work done there.  There are lots of bruises, which are rather spectacular, as blunt force trauma tends to produce.  Here’s a shot of part of my right arm.  The blue isn’t quite like the forbidden liturgical blue improperly used by some during Advent.  Nor is is like the cerulean that can be used in Marian vestments.  It has a greenish cast, which renders it unliturgical indeed.  Anyway, they are coming out all over.  I suppose it’ll take a while to reabsorb it all.  My aches and pains are prime opportunities to offer up some petitions.  I have BIG ONE I’m working on, the successor in Madison.  Pray with me for that one, please.

Anyway, today I should reach out and ask for some help with a few tasks.  I don’t ask for help easily, I must admit, hence, another way to do penance.

The jury is still out on my NYC trip on Monday.

_____ Originally Published on: Dec 5, 2018

I originally posted a request for prayers after my injuries in Paris. Here’s an update.

First, I’m doing better. I still have a lot of pain, especially around my chest. My foot doesn’t hurt as much. We will keep an eye on the bones that where broken with x-rays. My shoulder is a problem. I have a rotator cuff thing, having landed on the pavement on that shoulder. Pain killers are helping.

Yesterday, for Bishop Morlino’s funeral, I was able to get around with crutches, whereas the night before I needed a wheelchair. It took a lot out of me, however.

I am suppose to travel to NYC next week! My good friend Fr. Murray is being honored, and I want to be there. HERE The doctor said that, if I feel up to it, he didn’t see a reason why I couldn’t go, which left me flabbergasted. I’ll wait for a few days before I make my decision.  It would be a heck of a lot slower time in NYC than I’m used, that’s for sure!

I won’t let this thing beat me, but I also have to be prudent.

Lastly, but most importantly, I am so very grateful to those of you who pitched in to help me upgrade my seat on the plane returning from Paris. It made what was a serious situation quite a bit less painful. I hope I was able to identify everyone who sent donations:

MS, MH, RR, AM, JL, CF, TMcN, KB, WG, DD, WM, RC, EBR, CR, WH, CHEJr, ML, PAC, SW, MW, PJMcD, PSW, MF, JSP, DC, KC, JD, CB, DD, MTG, JD, JWM, JE, DH, KC, PL, MG, RP, PC, JW, DH, KC, PL, RP, CW, SB, CD, CB, JH, CP, TL, MH, St JA, AR, BS, SF, DA, TP, DM, A-MK, DC, J-AF, ER, SP, MRS, AW, LL, DRFB, RC, AL, AKP, MH, TN.COM, WH, KZ, MJC, RC, JR, DL, BMcM, PJPMV, JC, CM, MW, KM, RC, RB, MGA, JL, DB, MV, TG, DH, WMcC, CH, MF, CT, RJ, MA, RO, DR, VC, MEBR, RS, TA, MH, MK, JF

You were material and spiritual consolation to me in a time of real trial.

I’ll say Mass soon for your intention soon. Meanwhile, I do not forget you in my daily prayers.

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
9 Comments