Because today is the 2nd Sunday after Pentecost, it’s time for a trip to your planet’s largest satellite!
Everyone should check out the amazing “Tour of The Moon” 4K “fly over” video, provided by the folks at NASA. HERE
It makes me want to watch The Martian again. US HERE – UK HERE
Was there a good point made in the sermon you heard at the Mass to fulfill your Sunday obligation? Let us know!
Many people will have celebrated Corpus Christi today (even though it was, properly, last Thursday). Others may have had the 2nd Sunday after Pentecost, and green vestments.
If you had Corpus Christi today, Sunday, did you have a Eucharistic Procession?
Let us know. Anyone can vote. Registered participants are encouraged also to comment. Tell us what you saw.
It is probable that widespread Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and many Masses coram Sanctissimo preserved Austria from the Protestant revolt, or so I have been told.
Now, it seems as if every story about anything Catholic that comes out of Austria is nutty.
Alas, Austria. What a tragedy. What a lesson. What a warning.
All of Europe, really. Nicht wahr?
From gloria.tv:
Last Thursday, in the municipality of Kirchbach, St Pölten diocese (eastern Austria), pastoral assistant Sabine Latzenhofer, carried the monstrance below a baldachin for the Corpus Christi procession. Latzenhofer also read the gospel and blessed the faithful with holy water.
St Pölten diocese is run by Opus Dei Bishop Klaus Küng (76).
From a reader…
QUAERITUR:
May a lay natural father baptize his own child? As an expectant father, I have heard conflicting views on this practice. Obviously, the priest is the proper and ordinary authority for this, I was simply curious. (P.S. I appreciate any anonymity you can provide).
I’d happily provide anonymity for you, but I don’t know who you are.
First, congratulations.
That said, your question is a little puzzling.
If you are not trapped in a hunting lodge surrounded by wolves 30 miles from the road during the winter when your wife gives birth, I’d wait for the baptism to be in church by the priest. If you are trapped, however, by all means, administer baptism right away.
Lay people can baptize. In fact, non-Catholic and non-believers can baptize, provided they use water and intend to do what the Church intends by using the proper Trinitarian form.
Sometimes lay people must baptize, as in the your case of being trapped in the hunting lodge.
May lay people baptize? That’s more complicated. Sometimes, in the absence of ordinary ministers of the sacrament, the Church will provide that some appointed person, such as the village catechist, should do the baptisms. Otherwise, while still understanding that “can” and “must” and “emergencies”, etc., in general lay people may not baptize. That is what bishops, priests, and deacons – the ordained – do.
This is particularly important in when the traditional Roman rite of baptism is used, because of the additional elements in the rite. Those additional elements of the exorcisms and so forth are considered important enough that, after emergency baptisms, they were ritually “supplied” after the fact.
And let’s not forget the importance of witnesses: baptisms need to be done properly and documented in the parish register.
And let’s not forget the important of godparents, who aren’t in the hunting lodge with you… unless your child is to be raised by the circling wolves.
I am glad you are concerned for your child’s baptism. I warmly recommend having the priest do it, without much delay.
From a reader…
QUAERITUR:
Are we required to join in the prayers of the faithful at Mass?
Sometimes these can be excruciatingly political and occasionally downright wrong.
For instance, on the recent solemnity of Our Lady Help of Christians (I’m Australian and she is one of our national principal patrons), my wife and I attended Mass. During the prayers of the faithful, most were in keeping with the feast and had a Marian slant as you would expect, however one said (paraphrased, but not exaggerating) “We pray for Muslims, that we can come to value their understanding, faith and courage”. [Huh? “for Muslims…. that WE…”. Stupid.]
Given the whole Our Lady of Victories thing, surely this is not just out of place, but offensive on such a feast. Which brings me to my point. My wife and I both said nothing during the response, but is this licit? Are we required to join in a prayer that is obviously out of keeping with the faith? What should we do? Our parish is the cathedral for our diocese, by the way.
Thanks as always – my wife loves your answers, particularly the regular GO TO CONFESSION refrain. We need it!
Prayers of the faithful…. oh boy.
When I’ve been at a church as a visitor and the prayers of the faithful are coming at us, as inescapable as a train in a tunnel, I invariably think: “How bad is this going to be?” If I don’t hear something inept, or dumb, or just plain strange, I’m relieved.
We’ve all heard weird prayers of the faithful during Masses. Some of them are head-pounding-on-the-pew stupid. The spontaneous ones are The Worst™.
There are, I believe, templates provided for prayers of the faithful. While not “handcrafted” for this community, they tend to be a) brief and b) not heretical.
The recommended order for intentions given in the Missal is as follows.
It doesn’t have to be complicated.
Heck, I’d consider saying, “For the needs of the Church, we pray to the Lord… Lord, hear our prayer. For the world, we pray to the Lord…” and so forth.
Do you have to say “Amen!” to something that you know is off the wall?
No.
However, if the prayer is in the least reasonable, as the first part of the prayer you mentioned was reasonable, then you probably should say “Amen” and sincerely mean it.
It seems that a lot of these prayers start with something or someone worthy of prayer. For the …. X…. the poor, dying, sick, our nation, the Pope, vocations, travelers, elected politicians, etc. It is in the second part that the writer can often go to the zoo.
Let’s have a POLL.
There are many possible options, but pick the one that best fits your situation. Anyone can vote. Registered users can comment… and I hope you will.
And let me just say: GO TO CONFESSION!
Do I hear and “Amen!”?
This is about par for the Jesuit course.
From Breitbart:
Jesuit Priest Tells Catholics to Fight Abortion by Electing ‘Pro-Choice Democrats’
Writing for Religion News Service (RNS)— Father Reese, the former editor-in-chief of [Jesuit] America Magazine—says that “pro-lifers must consider voting for candidates, even pro-choice Democrats, who will reduce the number of abortions by supporting programs that help mothers and their children.”
In his political propaganda piece aimed at discrediting President Trump’s recent moves to partially defund Planned Parenthood, Father Reese abandons his role as a Catholic cleric to stump for the Democratic Party. [Jesuit Reese, fundraiser for big-business abortion?]
Closing Planned Parenthood clinics “that provide health care and birth control to women before replacements are up and running is irresponsible and counterproductive,” he writes. [So, support organizations that provide sound alternatives to big-business abortion!]
Employing convoluted logic meant to assuage the consciences of Christians who support pro-abortion legislators, Reese makes the claim that Democrats like Hillary Clinton who support Planned Parenthood and abortion-on-demand are actually better for the pro-life cause than Republicans who attempt to install pro-life justices or draft legislation aimed at restricting abortions.
“Pro-life voters must choose between Republican rhetoric and Democratic results,” he writes, in bold advocacy for the party that applies a pro-abortion litmus test to all its potential political candidates. [The Party of Death.]
Reese’s “argument” goes something like this: Abortion will never be illegal, and pro-lifers must accept this fact. They must, therefore, abandon efforts to rescind or limit laws permitting abortion and devote themselves, instead, to enacting more expansive government programs that support women so they will not choose to have abortions.
“Trying to preserve anti-abortion laws or trying to reverse the legalization of abortion is simply not working,” Reese writes, citing the recent Irish abortion referendum as a case in point. [Ahhh, Ireland. The gift that keeps on giving.]
Thinking that abortion could ever be illegal is “simply ignoring reality,” he contends. “Time is on the side of the pro-choice movement.” [Tom “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em!” Reese, SJ]
Pro-life advocates should, instead, “strongly support programs that give women a real choice — increasing the minimum wage, free or affordable day care for working and student moms, free or affordable health care for mothers and their children, parental leave programs, education and job-training programs, income and food supplements, etc.” he writes.
Had he lived a century-and-a-half ago, Father Reese would have found himself among the shameful Christian clerics who argued that since abolition was impossible and black slavery would never be illegal, efforts should be made to help slaveowners treat their human property as nicely as possible. Such political “realism” has ever been the ally of moral cowardice.
In direct opposition to the U.S. Bishops, Reese further asserts that “the contraceptive mandate of the Obama administration will do more to reduce the number of abortions than all of the legislative gimmicks of Republican legislators.” [pro pro-abortion politicians, pro contraceptives]
“If European Catholic institutions can pay money into national health programs that perform abortions, then American Catholic employers can pay for insurance programs that pay for birth control,” he insists. [Okaaaaay… if someone robs a bank, commits a murder, burns a hospital down, I can do it too!]
The pro-life movement “has to support birth control as a means of avoiding unwanted pregnancies,” he insists, and those, like the Catholic church, “who consider artificial contraception to be wrong must also recognize that abortion is a greater evil. When forced to choose, one must choose the lesser of two evils.”
What Father Reese may forget from his seminary lessons in moral theology, the concept of choosing a “lesser evil” never justifies choosing any moral evil so that good may come from it. It refers, rather, to opting for an imperfect—but not immoral—solution to a problem when a perfect solution is unavailable.
Father Reese’s love affair with the Democratic Party and his willingness to sacrifice moral truth for political gain is reminiscent of the conduct of his confrère, Jesuit Father Robert Drinan (D-MA), who served in the House of Representatives from 1971 to 1981.
A vocal advocate of abortion rights, Father Drinan notably supported President Bill Clinton’s veto of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act in 1996.
Soon after, the redoubtable archbishop of New York, Cardinal John O’Connor, rebuked Drinan in his weekly column in Catholic New York. “You could have raised your voice for life; you raised it for death. Hardly the role of a lawyer. Surely not the role of a priest.”
One can only hope that, similarly, moral clarity will prevail in the present case. If Father Reese wishes to speak for the Catholic church, he had best get his story straight.
I had notice of an upcoming event at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe near La Crosse, Wisconsin.
If you have never visited this beautiful shrine, you might consider a summer road trip pilgrimage. Also in Wisconsin is the shrine of the only officially approved Marian apparition in these USA.
However, at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in the Diocese of La Crosse, there is an event on 29 July 2018 for Hispanic communities.
Msgr. Eduardo Chavez, Postulator for the cause of St. Juan Diego, and His Eminence Norberto Cardinal Rivera Carrera, Archbishop Emeritus of Mexico City, will be at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse, Wisconsin and will offer a presentation on Our Lady of Guadalupe – Mother of the Civilization of Love and a Pontifical Mass in Spanish. (I assume that is Novus Ordo, rather than TLM.)
There is no cost to attend and registration is not necessary. However, seating will be first come-first serve so pilgrims should arrive early. Large groups should notify.
There will also be a conference on Our Lady of Guadalupe in English, with His Eminence Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke, on July 27-28. Registration for that can be found HERE.
If you haven’t visited the Shrine, it is worth the effort.
In 1986 the English edition of Joseph Ratzinger’s Feast of Faith was published by Ignatius Press. US HERE – UK HERE In that volume Benedict XVI reflected on the feast of Corpus Christi.
His Holiness juxtaposed the sad decline of Eucharistic devotions after the Second Vatican Council with what the Council of Trent taught. Although the anti-triumphalism of some post-Conciliar liturgists had repressed Eucharistic exposition, adoration and processions,
the Council of Trent had been far less inhibited. It said that the purpose of Corpus Christi was to arouse gratitude in the hearts of men and to remind them of their common Lord. (cf. Decr. desc. Euch., c. 5; DS 1644). Here in a nutshell, we have in fact three purposes: Corpus Christi is to counter man’s forgetfulness, to elicit his thankfulness, and it has something to do with fellowship, with that unifying power which is at work where people are looking for the one Lord. A great deal could be said about this; for with our computers, meetings and appointments we have become appallingly thoughtless and forgetful (pp. 128-9).
Let us consider Trent again for a moment. There we find the unqualified statement that Corpus Christi celebrates Christ’s triumph, his victory over death. Just as, according to our Bavarian custom, Christ was honored in the terms of a great state visit, Trent harks back to the practice of the ancient Romans who honored their victorious generals by holding triumphal processions on their return. The purpose of Christ’s campaign was to eliminate death, that death which devours time and makes us cultivate the lie in order to forget or “kill” time. … Far from detracting from the primacy of reception which is expressed in the gifts of bread and wine, it actually reveals fully and for the first time what “receiving” really means, namely, giving the Lord the reception due to the Victor. To receive him means to worship him; to receive him means precisely, Quantum potes tantum aude – dare to do as much as you can. (p. 130).
What strikes me in this today – I’ve read it many times over the years – is the stress on reception in connection with doing. There is a logical priority to reception. This is precisely the dynamic present in all of our properly understood “full, conscious and active participation” in our sacred liturgy.
Receptivity is not necessarily passive. Our liturgical receptivity is decidedly active. We participate – ideally – with active receptivity. That means engaging the will in a disciplined way to connect our attention, focus, heart, mind on the gestures and the texts, which are by and from Christ, the true Actor in the Church’s worship.
Everything Christ offers is transformative.
May I recommend to the readership that you would benefit from a subscription to the Catholic Herald?
Yesterday evening, real Corpus Christi, we had a Pontifical Mass at the Throne with a Eucharistic Procession at St. Norbert’s in Roxbury, WI, a beautiful little church in a deeply German area of the diocese.
Here are a few photos to give you a taste of the event.
To put yourself more fully into it, it is about 90°F in the church, no AC, and very humid.
Ecce Sacerdos Magnus, qui in diebus suis placuit Deo…
The painting above the altar was a gift to the parish by King Ludwig of Bavaria.
Note the fans.
Lots of vestments!
The Bishop gives the pax to a newly ordained deacon of the diocese, participating as 2nd Assistant at the Throne.
Just for nice!
The first priests carries the Blessed Sacrament. Note that both our ombrellino and the canopy match our Pontifical set.
The first altar.
The second priests carries the Blessed Sacrament back to the church.
The Extraordinary Ordinary gives the final Benediction.
Getting the recessional organized. We had the participation of Knights of Columbus and Knights and Dames of the Holy Sepulcher. There were priests in choir from the Society of Jesus the Priest.
It was a great Mass, though we were pretty wilted by the end.
At the end, there was a potluck supper for the congregation.
¡Hagan lío!
Coat of Arms by D Burkart
A Daily Prayer for Priests
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