Baptism in St. Louis

I'm in the summertime doldrums, and have left blogging aside for a good while. That's because there's been little to blog about in the course of affairs these past months.
I've been in St. Louis for a few days, primarily to baptize the newest daughter (Broghan Ann) of a former student of mine, T.J. Hunkins, and his wife, Michelle. The ceremony was held Sunday afternoon at the Church of the Seven Holy Founders of the Order of Servites of Mary (aka Seven Holy Founders or SHF). Oddly enough, this church is staffed by Friars of the Order of Servites, a friendly and helpful bunch as I've come to experience.
The weather here has been beautiful. After a front moved in, it's been clear and cool for the remainder.
Work to do continues in Arkansas that I'll have to address when I return tomorrow, but for now, I will continue to enjoy the peace of not working.

Catholic Cartoon Blog

Catholic Cartoon Blog

Friday in Chicago

Yesterday we celebrated the Eucharist in the extraordinary form (Tridentine). It was interesting and not without a compelling beauty. However, I figure that I was about only one of two priests who were present who actually remember and had lived the old liturgy, even if in my case it was only for a brief time.

I felt that the priest who was doing it really didn't have it down pat. He was rather stiff, as were all of the younger priests assisting. Time and repetition will, I hope, remedy this. In the meantime, I found it distracting.

Yesternight, Father Frank Phillips, CR, pastor of St. John Cantius (see picture above) presented us with an overview of his experience in maintaining and fostering the treasury of the Church's sacred music at his parish. Frank and I had an all-too-brief sharing before the talk. Today, Michael and I are going to play hooky and go to St. John's for a tour. I've been there several times, but I want Michael to enjoy it.

This afternoon there is a session on reforming the role of the cantor at 3:45. If anything needs reforming in the musical life of the Church it is the cantor. I believe that I have it well-regulated at Holy Redeemer, but I am interested to hear what they have to say. I am like that woman in the story by Flannery O'Connor (can't remember the name of it offhand) who was described as one 'who never had any ideas of her own, but was always able to use those of others so well that she never felt the lack.' Like a little bee, I have gone through life taking a little bit here and there. There is hardly anyone that I've encountered from whom I haven't learned something. Some good, some not so good.

Chicago, Loyola University

Michael Odom, our organist-choirmaster, and I are at the 18th annual Sacred Music Colloquium, held this year at Loyola U., Chicago. The campus is on the lake shore of Lake Michigan. The beautifully renovated Madonna de la Strada Chapel is the scene of our liturgies. This beautiful chapel opens right onto Lake Michigan. It is as if one is looking out to see as the lake falls below the eastern horizon.

This is the colloquium of the Church Music Association of America. They are the opposite of the spectrum of the National Association of Pastoral Musicians. Here, chant and polyphony, and the extraordinary and ordinary forms of the Roman Liturgy in Latin and Latin/English reign supreme. When I concelebrated Tuesday and Wednesday, I realized that I was the oldest priest in the sanctuary. This gave me pause, not because of my realization of my aging (I could still give most of those that were there a run for their money!) but that I was probably the only one in the sanctuary who actually remembered the old Latin Mass as a part of my life experience---when it was still the only form of liturgy in the Church! The others were celebrating it and promoting it, but it was that they did not grow up with. This led me to opine that there is a difference of approach between me and them. If push came to shove, I believe that these younger priests in their lace surplices and birettas are really play-acting, although they are doing so with great seriousness and piety.

All of this lead me to describe this event as a kind of liturgical "Jurassic Park." By that I mean that, just as in the movie, people have re-created things from a distant past THAT THEY HAVE NEVER EXPERIENCED! In the movie, ancient life forms were re-created, without regard for the fact that the world has moved on, and that a T-rex running around in the jungle is probably a bad thing for folks. Here, an ancient liturgy has been re-created, but without an appreciation that Catholic life, for better or worse, has radically changed since the '50's. You can tell that they are on a certain level play acting since their presentation of the liturgy is so rigid that you can see them mentally trying to remember what is to come next. There is a stiffness to their presentation and, occasionally, some gross fumbles.

The impression I'm getting is that the proponents of this are seeing the ancient liturgy as something to which every liturgy should aspire. The mutual influence of the ordinary and extraordinary forms then becomes rather one-sided. It is not what we can learn from BOTH liturgies, but how can we make the ordinary form more like the extraordinary form. This leads to the ultimate position that we might just otta jettison the new form and go back to the old.

Now they would deny this, and I believe sincerely, but I still have a sneaking suspicion that clericalism is lurking around here, and a kind of piety that is cut off from a vibrant Catholic life. These are just my impressions, and I am willing to be corrected.

At the same time, there is much beauty laid out for us, and as an artist I'm quite enjoying the musical banquet that we are having. There are some practical liturgical things that we're picking up, but they will all have to be critiqued and digested when we get back home. Is this conference worth it? By all means. Oh, and for those of you who thing that I'm on vacation, please understand that we have not left the university campus during our entire time here. There's been no sight-seeing (but much sight-singing), or restaurants or anything like that. Michael and I are planning to take a visit to a church, tomorrow, though. That still doesn't count for a vacation.

St. Columban, abbot

This is from the pope's General Audience of 11 June. It's subject is the Irish monk, Columban, and his contribution to the Christian life of Europe. The Holy Father has been using the saints of Europe as topics for his audiences. Is this an attempt on his part to continue drawing Europe's attention to its Christian roots? I don't know, but it may be part of the strategy.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
In today’s catechesis we turn to Saint Columban, one of the many Irish monks who contributed to the re-evangelization of Europe in the early Middle Ages. Columban made his monastic profession in Bangor and was ordained a priest. At the age of fifty, he left the monastery to begin missionary work in Europe, where entire regions had lapsed into paganism. Beginning in Brittany, Columban and his companions established monasteries at Annegray and Luxeuil. These became centres for the spread of the monastic and missionary ideals brought by the monks from their native Ireland. Columban introduced to Europe the Irish penitential discipline, including private confession. His stern moral teachings led to conflict with the local Bishops and the Frankish court, resulting in the exile of the Irish monks, first to the Rhineland and then to Italy. At Bobbio, where he established a great monastic centre, Columban worked for the conversion of the Arian Lombards and the restoration of unity with the Bishop of Rome. It was there that he died, leaving behind not only the example of an austere monastic life, but also a corpus of writings which shaped the monastic culture of the Middle Ages and thus nourished the Christian roots of Europe.
* * *

© Copyright 2008 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

The Life of st. Columban, by the monk, Jonas, can be found here:

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/columban.html

Tim Russert, R.I.P.

The surprising death of Tim Russert, noted newsman and faithful Catholic layman came as a shock. The following is from the report in the Catholic News Service:

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- NBC News Washington bureau chief and "Meet the Press" moderator Tim Russert, who died June 13 at the age of 58, was remembered for his warm lifelong ties to the Catholic Church and his support for Catholic education as well as for his career covering politics.Russert collapsed of an apparent heart attack at work.An active Catholic who apparently kept a promise to God to never miss Sunday Mass if his son was born healthy, Russert spoke often and fondly of his Catholic school education and of the role of the church in his life."Americans valued his tremendous command of the political electoral process and his commitment to discovering each aspect of the story that contributed to people having a better awareness of the issues of public life and candidates for political office," said Archbishop George H. Niederauer of San Francisco, chairman of the U.S. bishops' communications committee, who was attending the U.S. bishops' spring meeting in Orlando, Fla."But those of us who shared his Catholic faith and his deep love for it appreciate his sharing of the story of his own faith and his loyalty to the life of the Catholic Church in this country and the many charities to which he contributed his time and talent," the archbishop told Catholic News Service.

Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May he rest in peace.

Friday, St. Anthony of Padua

Today is the feast of St. Anthony of Padua, priest of the Order of Friars Minor and Doctor of the Church. He was born in Lisbon and ended his days in Padua. One of the relics preserved there are his vocal chords. It was through them that he did his preaching, so I guess that they are worthy of honor. I once read an article about them in the Journal of the National Association of Teachers of Singing. Singers should take care of their vocal equipment with the same veneration.

I had to leave the retreat early, and departed yesterday. I'm sorry to have missed the whole thing. I do have information on how to contact Abbot Marcel, and I hope to be able to sit at his feet sometime in the future.

Michael Odom, our organist-choirmaster, and I are going to Chicago for the Church Music Association of America's annual convention. It will be at Loyola, there. I hope that we will both glean much from it.

I had forgotten how the heat at Subiaco in the summer is worse than it is down here in El Dorado. The abbey is in the Arkansas River valley, and the humidity is really awful. I would like to move somewhere north of Quebec.

Retreat, Wednesday

Abbot Marcel did a brilliant presentation of the Word as 1) information, 2) inspiration, and 3) communication of self. In the Mass we receive the word in these three ways. The importance of the Liturgy of the Word in the Mass should be ever-more clear to us. I wonder, however, how many realize that the proclamation of the Word is really Christ's communication of his very self, and therefore, a Real Presence in the assembly?

Yesterday it was hot and muggy. I'd forgotten how miserable the heat in the river valley can be at this time of the year. Even when it's hot and humid in Eldo, it's not as awful. It's still too hot for me, though. I should work in New Zealand in the summer.

News flash: the monks that were old yesterday, are even older today. Scientists are trying to account for this phenomenon.

Retreat, Tuesday

Abbot Marcel Rooney, former abbot of Conception Abbey in Missouri, and also former Abbot Primate of the Benedictine Order is our retreat master. He taught liturgy in Rome for many years and is a great speaker and teacher. I am enjoying his presentations immensely.

He is concentrating on the liturgy of the Mass, and giving us the background for it. He has drawn careful distinctions between the Roman-North African liturgical tradition and the Gallican. Interesting note: even though Charlemagne demanded the conversion of his empire to the Roman Liturgy vis-a-vis the Gallican in the 9th century, the last Gallican Mass was celebrated in Cologne in 1929. Emperors, kings, popes, councils and bishops all tried, but it took 1,200 years. Then there are some who wondery why the Tridentine Mass has hung on for so long. It's hard to kill a tradition---although many have tried.

The community seems reasonably happy, although getting older all the time. Father Aaron lost his little dog yesterday, but "Thor" was found caught in the parish hall this morning---disaster averted. The cool and humid weather of yesterday is leaving and hot and humid is the forecast. I hope that my garden and plants are being taken care of in Eldo. I'm off to the first morning conferenc for Wednesday.

Retreat Monday

Monday: I left Eldo at 11:30 and arrived at Subiaco around 3:15 in the afternoon. Somewhere around Mt. Petit Jean it started raining. Lots and lots of rain. After getting to the rectory of St. Benedict's Parish in Subiaco, where I'm staying with my confrere, Father Aaron, I got changed and went to the abbey across the highway for the annual jubilee Mass for our monks who are celebrating the anniversaries of their professions or ordinations. Father Hugh Assenmacher celebrates 50 years as a priest this year, and Father Brendan Miller celebrates 25 years also. Abbot Jerome presided at the Mass and preached.

This past year, we've lost three monks by death: Abbot Raphael, Father Harold, and Brother Martin. This month, two solemnly professed monks have received or are applying for dispensations from their vows and are leaving the community. One monk in temporary vows is also on the way out. This means that our community will have been reduced by six this year, with no new ones coming in. Such a situation cannot long obtain. We have to get more young men to come and to stay or else we will all be gone, sooner rather than later.

Guess Who's Watching

David Berlinski says in his book The Devil's Delusion: Atheism and Its Scientific Pretensions:

What Hitler did not believe and what Stalin did not believe and what Mao did not believe and what the SS did not believe and what the Gestapo did not believe and what the NKVD did not believe and what the commissars, functionaries, swaggering executioners, Nazi doctors, Communist Party theoreticians, intellectuals, Brown Shirts, Black Shirts, gauleiters, and a thousand party hacks did not believe was that God was watching what they were doing.

Recent and Coming Events

Last weekend I was at Subiaco for the annual alumni reunion. It was my class' 40th anniversary of graduation. The abbot invited me to be the main celebrant and preach the Alumni Reunion Mass in the Abbey Church. It went off smoothly and everyone was edified.

This coming Monday I go back to Subiaco for the annual monastic retreat and chapter meetings. It is always good to go back and see the brethren and be released from the duties of pastoring. There are, however, several parishioners that are on death's door, and it is likely that one or another of them will die next week, so my plans are subject to change.

The third week of June will see me and our organist-choirmaster, Michael Odom, in Chicago for the Church Music Association of America's annual convention. This should be good for both of us.

There is a garage sale going on the old parish hall this morning. We are going to tear it down and build an education building in its place. This is something that we sorely need, as even with our new space that we've enjoyed for the past eight years, we have been out of room. While I don't believe that growth is automatically a sign of the Spirit at work, it is sometimes and indicator. I pray that this is so in this case.

Bishop of Rockville Centre forbids weekday Communion services

As we approach the feast of Corpus Xsti, it is interesting to see this development. I believe that this is the right approach. See the full article at Catholic News Service.

"Bishop William Murphy has issued a pastoral letter restricting the practice of Communion services at parishes and schools in his diocese. He said the ban on Communion services would bring the diocese into conformity with the liturgical norms of the Church.
Writing in an eight-page letter sent on Friday, Bishop Murphy reflected on the importance of the Eucharist. "The Eucharist is the greatest gift Jesus left us… The celebration of the Eucharist gives us our identity as well as our life,” he said.
The bishop said that Communion services, in practice, often sever what he called “the connection between receiving the Sacrament and celebrating the sacrifice. The two go hand-in-hand,” he continued. “Receiving the Sacrament is the culmination of participating in the sacrifice. There is an inherent interconnection between sacrifice, Real Presence, and Communion,” Bishop Murphy said.
“In the popular mind, all too often the purpose of Mass is still seen as an action simply to consecrate hosts; some people think their participation in the Eucharistic Prayer is all about watching the priest and then receiving Holy Communion,” he wrote.
Bishop Murphy said that the internal “offering” of ourselves both differentiates a Mass from a Communion Service and provides context for the laity’s “full, conscious, and active” participation in the Mass.
He ordered the Communion services in the diocese to end by July 1. Bishop Murphy explained in his letter that the Communion services were originally intended for use on Sundays only in remote, missionary parishes where priests could rarely visit."

Ad Orientem

I have done something that has been gnawing at me for months. I have read several books on church architecture that have concentrated on the concept of "relative space." The prevailing philosophy or our day is Relativism. Since all things are relative, then all things are equal.

In relative space, all spaces are equal, and no one place within a building is more important or sacred than another. Yet, despite all attempts to relativize liturgical space, Catholics still have an appreciation for the "sanctuary" or "chancel" as a particularly sacred and focus-worthy area. The "thrust-stage" arrangement of the altars of most churches, where the priest faces the people is conducive to gathering around and celebrating a sacred meal, but I wonder if that juxtaposition is conducive to reverence and, ultimately, faith. Given the great lack of faith that I've encountered in the course of my ministry I wonder if familiarity has not bred contempt rather than the theological virtues.

For a period of discernment that will be for I-do-not-know how long, we will celebrate the daily Mass ad Orientem. This is not for the purpose of making some statement against "the Spirit of Vatican II," nor is it an exercise in antiquarianism.

For most of the centuries of the Church, the Sacred Liturgy was celebrated facing East. Even where altars were set up so that they were free-standing, nevertheless the direction of the priest and people was toward the East (or to "liturgical" East where a church was not built on an eastern axis).

I found this so in Bethlehem, when I was on pilgrimage in 2006, and attended a baptism at the Syrian Orthodox church there. It was also the direction of the liturgy when I was a youth, before Vatican II.

The idea of the priest, standing at the head of the people and offering the sacrifice of Christ for himself, for them, and for the world, is an idea that we've lost by having the liturgy facing the people. I have found that so far I like this "new" way for these reasons:

1. I am addressing prayers to God and not looking at people while I'm doing so. (This has always been a problem with Mass versus populi.) I have always been very careful about this anyway, when I celebrate facing the people. I try, unless I have to read the prayers directly from the Sacramentary, to direct my eye "Godwards," i.e., upwards, except for the prayer for peace that comes after the Lord's Prayer and which is directed (unlike the Eucharistic prayer and the collects that are addressed to the Father) to Christ. I look at the sacramental elements on the altar during that prayer as I've always tried to practice custody of the "liturgical" eye.
2. The people don't have to be distracted by looking at me, and I don't have to be distracted by looking at them.
3. It makes the chapel bigger by cutting down on the "footprint." In a small room this can be a great advantage, and I was able to relegate the original processional cross that was made for the chapel to be the p-c for Lent, and now use the original altar cross from the church.
4. There is something ineffable about it that I experience as I offer the Mass in this way.

Of course, I turn toward the people and address them at the proper times. Not gonna just say "The Lord be with you." glancing back over my shoulder.

This will not in any way affect the arrangement in the church of the altar for Sunday and Holy Day Masses (the only days we use the church anyway).

Let us see . . .

The First Novena

The descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles and the Church after the Ascension of Jesus to the right hand of the Father, represented the culmination of nine days of prayer and expectation. It is the source of the devotion called a "novena." While other novenas have come to be, directed to the honor of some saint, or for some spiritual purpose, yet the original novena started at the Ascension and completed at Pentecost is till the Ur-novena from which all take their name.

The readings of the Liturgy of the Eucharist and the Hours in these days are replete with the most wonderful and expectant writings of the New Testament and the Holy Fathers. May the annual celebration of that original outpouring of the Spirit form our hearts more and more into the dwelling place of Christ.

O Magnum Mysterium by Martin Lauridsen

I just heard this on Kent State classical streaming radio. The performance by the UST alumni singers is marred by the poor recording and gratuitous camera flashes, but the piece and their singing are magnificent! It moves me to tears as I listen to it. How wonderful it would be if our choir could do it for Christmas eve.

O magnum mysterium,
et admirabile sacramentum,
ut animalia viderent Dominum natum,
jacentem in praesepio!
Beata Virgo, cujus viscera
meruerunt portare
Dominum Christum. Alleluia!

O great mystery,
and wonderful sacrament,
that animals should see the new-born Lord,
lying in a manger!
Blessed is the Virgin whose womb
was worthy to bear
Christ the Lord. Alleluia!

St. Pius V and my Baptism Day

Michele Ghisleri (Pope Pius V) was born 17 Jan., 1504 elected 7 Jan., 1566; died 1 May, 1572. His family was poor, and he was taken in by the Dominicans and trained in theology and ordained. He was made a bishop and then a cardinal. He was noted as the Inquisitor General for all Christendom, and was particularly active against the Prods and the Turks. His real claim to fame is his support of the Christian league against the Turks, and assisted in various ways to the defeat of the Turkish navy at the battle of Lepanto on 7 October 1571.

From the New Catholic Encyclopedia: The original title of the Feast of the Most Holy Rosary. On Sunday 7 Ocotber 1571 the combined Christian fleets under Don John of Austria achieved a significant naval victory over the Turks in the Straits of Lepanto. Thousands of Christians were liberated, the Turkish fleet was destroyed, and they suffered their first great defeat at sea. In gratitude to God and Our Lady, Pope St. Pius V ordered an annual commemoration to be made of Our Lady of Victory. Pope Gregory XIII transferred the feast to the first Sunday of October with the title Most Holy Rosary since it victory was won through invocation of Our Lady of the Rosary In the reform of the liturgy the feast was returned to its original day.

The reason why I commemorate him as a patron is because on this day in 1950 I was baptized by Fr. Joseph Quinn at Immaculate Conception Church in Fort Smith, Arkansas. My parents and godparents were of course present: Paul, and Mary Elizabeth Sherrey, Charles, my father (all gone to their eternal reward, and my mother, Darleen.

St. Louis of France once said that of all the cathedrals and churches of his realm, he prized above all the church of his baptism. As the church of our baptism is the place where we entered into eternal life, we should all hold that place and those persons who brought us to the font in great esteem.

The Epitome of Priestly Narcissism

Where have I been?

From the Fifth Sunday of Lent until now, I have been whelmed with the cares and liturgies of the Church. H0ly Week was a time of great grace and beauty. At the Easter Vigil I baptized an infant, a child, and an adult. I confirmed seven. On Easter Sunday I baptized an infant at the English Mass and three infants at the Spanish Mass. There were baptisms at the Spanish Mass last Sunday, too.

This Sunday (Emmaus Sunday) is our first communion Sunday. There will be a group at each of the Masses.

Last night I was in Little Rock for the section meeting of the members of the Diocese of Little Rock who are in the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem. We are planning for the Southwest Lieutenancy meeting that will be held in the see city in October. I was also drumming up participants in the pilgrimage that I am leading to the Holy Land and Rome in November.

On top of everything, I came down with a cold a few days ago, and am only now getting over it.

The insurance assessor was here last week and informed us of many stupid things that we have to do, like Plexiglas beneath the vigil light stands, and velcro-ing the statutes to their plinths. It was unbelievable.

Can you imagine? Some Mohammedans in the world got their feelings hurt by the baptism of a former member of their cult by B16. Poor things.

And my little dog, Butch is doing well, and is with me here in the office as I type. He says hell0 to all of you and prays that you had and will have a blessed Easter season.

Patron Saint of the (new) New Age