Journeys of a Catholic Poster Girl

has arrived.

Tried it on in the mirror, and I think it looks pretty sweet. It doesn’t fall off when I bow or lower my head either, so that’s a good thing!
Hopefully I can make it to Mass tomorrow and give it a first run. I’m excited!

Today I went to noon Mass at St. Joseph’s downtown. I made a promise to myself to go more often, so…no day like today, right?

Usually I like to get there early so I can say my rosary (or most of it) in front of the tabernacle, in the Eucharistic chapel. There’s just something about praying my rosary there, in front of Jesus in the tabernacle, that makes it that much more special for me, and I feel so much closer to Our Lord. So this is an important time for me. I tend to work out big problems while doing this, too.

So I was praying, per usual, when I saw a nun and a little girl. I couldn’t tell what order the nun was with–I didn’t recognize her habit (grey head scarf/pieces, whatever it’s called now, a sort of lighter-gray, dark white dress, rope around the waist, wooden rosary also at waist). The nun, who looked about my age, was pointing things out to the little girl, and, when they reached the chapel, the nun showed her how to genuflect and make the Sign of the Cross. I’m guessing the girl was about three or four.

The sister and the child attended the Mass (today’s the feast day of St. Bartholemew, BTW), and I sat in front of her. During the peace we shook hands. She had the most radiant, calm, peaceful face. And she was very friendly and obviously patient, to take the little girl around like that.

Seeing a nun–in habit!–worshipping and teaching like that was a good insertion to my day. It also helped me stick to my resolve to be more prayerful, more in tune with God.

Today’s mind-blowing Biblical Studies idea: 

“Reading the Scriptures is like going to Communion.” –Dr. Miletic. 

We were talking about the Catechism and doing what we would call in the English Department a “Close reading”, where we read the text and then dig around in it for its meaning. The text at hand was paragraph 103, which says that we (The Church) venerates Scripture as it does Christ’s body. 

Dr. Miletic then asked us for the connection between the two. We hemmed and hawed. 

“What do you do when you go to communion?”
Receive Jesus–body, soul, divinity.

“Yes. And that is also what you do when you read Scripture. Reading Scripture is like going to Communion.” 

I was blown away. Really. I had never thought of this that way. “The scriptures are sacramental,” he continued. “That’s why only an ordained minister can read the Gospel.”  

Wow. The same thing happens we when we read scripture as happens when we receive Communion! And I have a Bible around all the time!

I will be reading more of my Bible, that’s for sure.

(did you know the Fourth Sunday of Easter was called Good Shepherd Sunday? I didn’t.)

This Sunday I attended Mass at my mom’s home parish, Church of the Nativity,in Baldwin, PA (a suburb of Pittsburgh).  Besides being the church where all my mom’s sisters were married, it’s also where I was baptized on May 9, 1982 (Mother’s Day that year). 

I hadn’t been to the church in awhile, and there were lots of changes, both cosmetically (new carpet, new pews) and liturgically–the tabernacle has been moved front and center, behind the altar, and the servers ring bells at the moment of consecration (loved that!). If, as Fr. Z tells us, we must “say the black and do the red”, then Nativity is well on its way. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Latin Mass there someday. There’s a group that says Rosary before every Mass, and they have a Divine Mercy icon to the right of the altar. 

The priest was a visiting priest–the Diocese of Pittsburgh does “priest swaps”, where local pastors switch churches for a weekend. I think it’s a good idea. This one was from St. Germain, which has merged with Nativity’s school to form St. Katherine Drexel Catholic School. All my mom’s siblings went to Nativity, and my grandfather taught music lessons there, so it’s sad to see the school merged with another. But the parish is 100 years old, so it’s a sign of the times (sadly). 

The priest told us about Good Shepherd Sunday, and connected the Gospel (from John 10) to the raising of Lazarus from the dead in Chapter 11–followers of Jesus are like the sheep who know their shepherd’s voice. Jesus only had to say to Lazarus, “Lazarus, come out!” and he did. We don’t need to hear a lot of words if we are in touch with Jesus’s voice. The priest then went on to discuss how shepherds and sheep-herding really worked (i.e., how the sheep had names the shepherds would call, how they would be rounded up into their pen, etc) and connected that with how Jesus cares for us. 

How much attention do we give our shepherd? We know that our shepherd laid down his life for us–his sheep. Real sheep don’t know that–they can’t intellectually figure that out. But we can.

From the Corner:

Bianca Jagger [Jack Fowler]
lobbies for expansion of Tridentine Mass in England. She’s one of a number of Latin Massers signing a petition prompted by the lack of clerical enthusiasm for Pope Benedict XVI’s 2007 apostolic letter (Summorum Pontificum) advocating greater use of the once-universal rite.

I found this little post today over at The Happiness Project:

Until I started my Happiness Project, I didn’t think much about rituals and whether they made me happy.

But when I reflected on them, I realized that I find rituals both calming and energizing (this is no paradox, and in fact, is a very desirable, happy state).

For example, In my high school, exams were taken VERY seriously, and the process was always the same. When everyone was settled at a desk, the teacher would pass out the papers, and we’d lay them face down. She’d return to the front of the classroom, look at the clock, and say quietly, “It is now 9:10. You have two hours. Be sure to read all instructions carefully”—then a dramatic pause—“you may turn over your test paper and begin.”

This familiar, grave, quiet formula made the start of an exam into a little ritual that helped put me in the right frame of mind to face a stressful exam.

I was astonished when I went to college to find a completely chaotic exam-taking process. People would hurry to the professor’s desk, grab a paper, and shove each other out of the way to sit down. When the end of the exam was announced, some people would keep writing for ten or fifteen more minutes before a TA snatched away their blue books.

This lack of ritual left me rattled and distracted – just the opposite of how I’d approached exams in high school.

Along the same lines, the Little Girl just started “camp,” and I’d braced myself for a dismissal when they’d all rush out of the door helter-skelter as we adults pushed amongst ourselves to try to scoop up the right kid. Intead, after singing a good-bye song, the children stand in a circle in the classroom, while the grown-ups wait in a line outside the door. The counselors call the children’s names, one by one, and the child comes to the door to get a big hug and to leave. The orderliness and deliberateness of this process keeps everyone calm and cheerful.

Whenever I sit down to work, in my office or at a coffee shop or at New York Society Library, I run through a series of updates, checks, synchronizations, and switching on of various devices and programs. It’s both soothing and energizing to perform my machine ritual.

So think about rituals in your life. Take a moment to savor the enjoyable ones. Think about opportunities to heighten the experience of an ordinary occasion by treating it with special deliberation—particularly if it’s a stressful or emotional experience. Discussing a child’s report card. Giving a performance review. Packing for a trip. Getting ready for a date.

Studies show that family traditions and family rituals encourage children’s social development and boost feelings of family cohesiveness. But they’re not just important for children.

We are steeped in ritual, as Catholics. The Liturgy is the same all over the world, in every country. I don’t know about you, but that gives me great comfort to know that, wherever I go, the Mass is the same. Sure, the songs might be a bit different than what your parish normally does, but in general, it is comforting and relaxing for me to attend Mass.

And when the ritual is disturbed, things seem quite…off, don’t they? Like when we changed the Mass so that we stand before the priest says “Pray then, my brothers and sisters…” That still feels wrong to me. I feel like I should be sitting. Or when we got rid of “This is” before “The word of the Lord” after the readings.

What part of the Mass is your favorite?

But to make up for it, here is a really great Fr. Z post!
Oh, and news at the Bucket, if you’re interested.

Reviewing WDTPRS bullet points
CATEGORY: SESSIUNCULUM — Fr. John Zuhlsdorf @ 9:50 am
Over time I have developed some ideas which guide most of what I post here regarding liturgy, liturgical translation, use of the older form of Mass, etc.

Let’s review some of the aphorisms and basic starting points I use here which are like helpful pegs upon which we can organize our thoughts when talking to people.

Think of a tool shop, where you see pegs on the wall with the shape of the tool that belongs their painted around the beg.

Liturgy is the tip of the spear

There is a reciprocal relationship between how we pray and what we believe. Change our prayer, we change our understanding of doctrine. At the same time, if you believe a certain thing, that will affect how you pray. Our identity begins to shift. The Latin phrase lex orandi lex credendi expresses this… the “law of praying is the law of believing”.

The older Mass exerts a “gravitational pull”

Use the image of gravity or “cross-pollination”, “harmonic resonance”, whatever.

The use of the older form of Mass will exert an influence on the way the newer form of Mass is being celebrated. First, younger priests (and older too) will discover new dimensions to Holy Mass by learning or refreshing the older form. This will change their self perception and how they say Mass. In turn, this will influence how people in the pews see them and understand Holy Mass. Since the Eucharist (Its celebration and the Sacrament Itself) is the “source and summit” of our Christian life, identity, mores, etc., everything about our Church will begin to shift because of these changes of self-perception.

Say The Black Do The Red

The “Black” means the texts written in black ink on the pages of liturgical books. The “Red” means the rubrics which explain the actions to be done.

Our sacred rites have their own interior force and power. Remember that the true Actor in every Mass is the High Priest Jesus Christ. He speak in every word. He acts in every gesture.

By our baptism, we have a share in Christ’s priesthood. Thus, when we united our heart, mind and will with the sacred action, He takes our voices and hands and makes them his own, each according to our proper role. The priest acts as Christ, Head of the Body. The congregation is His Body in union with the Head.

When we simply do what the Church asks and provides in our sacred rites, Christ is more easily discerned, His graces are more easily mediated, His voice and teaching more clearly heard.
We must get ourselves out of the way and simply do what Holy Church asks and offers.

Save The Liturgy Save The World

The Eucharist, its celebration and itself as the extraordinary Sacrament, is the “source and summit of Christian life”.

If we really believe that, then we must also hold that what we do in church, what we believe happens in a church, makes an enormous difference.

Do we believe the consecration really does something? Or, do we believe what is said and how, what the gestures are and the attitude in which they made are entirely indifferent? For example, will a choice not to kneel before Christ the King and Judge truly present in each sacred Host, produce a wider effect?

If you throw a stone, even a pebble, into a pool it produces ripples which expand to its edge. The way we celebrate Mass must create spiritual ripples in the Church and the world.

So does our good or bad reception of Holy Communion.

So must violations of rubrics and irreverence.

Mass is not merely a “teaching moment” or a “celebration of unity” or a “tedious obligation”. Our choice of music, architecture, ceremonies and language affect more than one small congregation in one building. We are interconnected in both our common human nature and in baptism. When we sin we hurt the whole Body of Christ the Church.

If that is true for sin, it must also be true for our liturgical choices. They must also have personal and corporate impact. Any Mass can be offered for the intentions of the living or the dead.

Not even death is an obstacle to the efficacy of Holy Mass. We offer Mass for the living and the dead.

Celebrate Mass well, participate properly – affect the whole world. Celebrate poorly – affect the whole world. This is another reason why we must Say The Black and Do the Red.

Already but not yet
Christ died and rose again. Thus our humanity, taken by Christ into an indestructible bond with His divinity, died, rose and ascended to the Father’s right hand.

Christ’s work is complete. But its fullness has not yet been realized.

In this world, in our Church, in our lives, we are “already” enjoying the first fruits of Christ’s redemptive work. But we have not received the fullness of what Christ has done.

Even the Eucharist is a foretaste of what is promised to us.

But we obscure the promise and place obstacles before what Christ offers us in the Church, in the liturgy, etc., when we places ourselves, our self-centered designs, in the way.

We must get out of Christ’s way, so that His will may be brought to fruition.

We are already “there”, but we still have a long way to go.

The stakes are very high indeed. What we do here is very important.

We are dealing with choices questions of life and death for ourselves and our children.

Ad intra et ad extra
When we consider large questions about the Church and who we are as Catholics, it is useful to make distinctions about who we are in ourselves and who we are in the world.

Catholics, Christians, are both of in the world and yet not part of the world, removed. We are living in a state of “already but not yet”. What we have here in the Church is a foretaste of the world to come.

But it is Christ’s will that Holy Church shape the world.

It is especially the role of Christian Catholic laymen to shape the large world. For this lay people need clergy to do their jobs, according to their vocations, to shape them and their identity, to sanctify, teach and govern them, so that Christ can act through their words and actions in the world.

So we must consider who we are as Catholics, within our Church, as ourselves, in relation with Christ the Lord. This is the ad intra angle. Then we also must consider who we are in the world around us, what our role is in the world we influence. This is the ad extra dimension.

This can be applied, for example, in the liturgical choice we make? What does doing X mean to ourselves as worshiping Catholics? What does it say to the world? When the College of Cardinals meets in conclave to choose a Pope, they must consider the man they choose in light of the Church’s needs in Herself and also how the Church interfaces with the world now and in the future. Ad intra et ad extra. This is not a chronological distinction but rather a logical distinction, helpful merely to get our thinking and planning organized.
Pope Benedict has a “Marshall Plan”

After World War II Europe was devastated. That devastation made it more likely that the enemies of humanity promoting Communism would find a good foothold. Also, Europe was in no position to engage in useful trade. More importantly, people were suffering. So the United States began to help rebuild Europe.

After Vatican II there has been terrible devastation of the Church. This is not so much because of the texts issued by the Council but because of the lack of correct reading of those texts, the ideological designs (sometimes malicious) of some few who had great influence in the Council’s implementation, and a deadly reversal of the logical priority which the Church must be given in the ongoing interchange between the Church and the world.

In short, Catholics have by and large lost their identity because of the general rupture created in nearly every aspect of our experience of worship, education, devotions, etc.

Because Catholics lost their identity, we have little or no influence in the public square. Thus, Catholics are easier targets for bigotry or persecution or simple apathy. We are more easily marginalized from public debate, pushed out of the square and given no voice. Sadly, many “Catholics” then compromise Catholic teaching on faith and morals, violate the Church’s laws, for the sake of gaining influence in the public square. Think of some Catholic politicians and even some clergy.

Pope Benedict’s plan is to reinvigorate Catholic identity from within the Church (ad intra) especially through our liturgical experience so that we can begin to claim our rightful role in the public square (ad extra), precisely as Catholics.

If we don’t know who we are, what we think and believe, can’t explain our position, then what could be possibly have to say to the world around us?

Saying the black and doing the red has a wider influence on the whole world, not just on ourselves in an enclosed Catholic ghetto. Liturgy is therefore our crow bar, the tip of the spear. It is the force which draws everything nearer to Christ.

This is why Summorum Pontificum is so very important. It reaches far beyond the desires of some people for older forms of liturgy.

This is why must have good translations for our vernacular Novus Ordo liturgy as well. The vernacular Novus Ordo is here to stay for the long-term, whatever your desires to the contrary may be.

Therefore, we need to have translations which reflect accurately and beautifully what the prayers really say. They will shape Catholics from within and then Catholics shape the world according to how they pray and believe. The prayers themselves begin to draw all things to Christ.

Something like this.

The beginning:

There is a translation point regarding the optional rite of washing feet (the “Mandatum” or “Command” – whence the word Maundy) on Holy Thursday.

In many places women are invited to have their feet washed.

This is against the Church’s laws which are based on divine revelation Scripture (cf. Matthew 20:28).

Now, this is Fr. Z, so of course he’s got the goods on it. Do read it.
Like the title suggests, this is something I never really thought about. Heck, my mom even had her feet washed one year. But is it indeed a licit practice?

(One of the reasons I probably didn’t think about it was 1) I’ve never been asked, and 2) we’re too busy in choir singing the feet washing song. )

Something to ponder as we get into Holy Week…

Good stuff:  (emphases are his)

The fair-minded nearly ubiquitous former Rome correspondent for the ultra-lefty NCR, Mr. John L Allen, Jr., has led his weekly blurb with a clear and correct statement:

Without a doubt, the push for robust assertion of traditional Catholic identity is the most consequential mega-trend in the life of the church today, and it is also the core of Benedict XVI’s agenda as pope. Emboldened by the election of John Paul II in 1978, the identity wave hit the arena of liturgy first, then went on to engulf Catholic education, Catholic media, priestly identity and formation, religious orders, and virtually every other sphere of ecclesiastical life.

Yes!

As I have been saying until you readers are no doubt hearing it repeated in your heads at night, Pope Benedict has a plan, a “Marshall Plan” for the Church, focusing especially on reinvigorating Catholic identity.  The liturgy is the tip of the spear.

Change the liturgy, you change everything else.

Note also that Allen brings in the point of priestly identity.  Clearly this is what Summorum Pontificum is aiming at.  The Motu Proprio is about priestly identity as much as it is about anything else.

If Catholics do not recover and strengthen a clear Catholic identity, one that is coherent in teaching and practice and in continuity with our past, then we cannot make the contribution the Lord commands her to give to the world.

In the ever secularizing, relativizing world, solid clear Catholics are being marginalized, while the squishy amorphous sort are being allowed to stick around as tokens in public discourse.

We need renewal of our identity so that we can understand well who we are and live our lives in keeping with that identity (this is the ad intra dimension).  Only in this way can we have something vital and effective to contribute to the world at large (this is the ad extra dimension).

Allen got it exactly right.

(a non-liturgical note: when I saw “squishy” my first thought was “I shall call him Squishy and he shall be mine, and he shall be my Squishy.”

If you don’t get that, you don’t have kids. Or don’t go out that often. )

(h/t Amy)

B XVI (before he was B XVI):

A very interesting essay from 1988 by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger:

While there are many motives that might have led a great number of people to seek a refuge in the traditional liturgy, the chief one is that they find the dignity of the sacred preserved there….

I confine myself to coming straight to this conclusion: we ought to get back the dimension of the sacred in the liturgy. The liturgy is not a festivity; it is not a meeting for the purpose of having a good time. It is of no importance that the parish priest has cudgeled his brains to come up with suggestive ideas or imaginative novelties.

The liturgy is what makes the Thrice-holy God present amongst us; it is the burning bush; it is the alliance of God with man in Jesus Christ, who has died and risen again. The grandeur of the liturgy does not rest upon the fact that it offers an interesting entertainment, but in rendering tangible the totally Other, whom we are not capable of summoning. He comes because He wills. In other words, the essential in the liturgy is the mystery, which is realized in the common ritual of the Church; all the rest diminishes it. Men experiment with it in lively fashion, and find themselves deceived, when the mystery is transformed into distraction, when the chief actor in the liturgy is not the living God but the priest or the liturgical director.