This is balance?

In a recently released statement, the prefect of the Congregation on the Doctrine of Faith, Archbishop Muller, commented on the heresy of the "traditionalists" and the "progressives."

He seems to promote a middle ground, or a proper balance between the extremes, with the key point being acceptance of the Second Vatican Council.

It made sense to me until I began to compare the most visible, accessible aspect of the differences between these groups: the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, the traditional form that was in use prior to the Second Vatican Council, and the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite as practiced in most parishes I've attended.

The Mass most commonly offered in our parishes bears little resemblance to that of pre-Councilliar times, this in spite of the Second Vatican Council's document on the liturgy which clearly established a base line that is not discernible in the Mass as offered in most parishes.

We can go through a short list of practices which fly in the face of those original documents and which represent a definitively progressive influence:

• Latin in the Mass: Latin was supposed to be retained in the Mass. Although it's the language of the Church, one can rarely find Latin being used in the Ordinary Form. The progressive liturgists won with the argument that "active participation" is easier when the entire Mass is said in the vernacular.  
• Gregorian Chant: While it is making a comeback in some quarters, it has disappeared from the Mass in most parishes. Again, the progressives employed the principle of "active participation," and, again, danced around actually educating the laity in Gregorian chant in favor of songs that might be easier for them to sing. 
•  Mass orientation: Since the earliest days of the Church, Mass was said facing east. This is called ad orientem, or "to the east." In the early days, this most often meant the priest and the people were facing the same direction. This soon became the practice of the Church, regardless of the orientation of the church. Without any document to support the move, most churches destroyed their old altars, moved in an “altar facing the people,” and the priest began saying Mass facing toward the people. Another progressive victory.
•  Liturgically correct hymns: Many traditional Catholic hymns, often in the name of ecumenism, were taken out of hymnals and no longer sung at Mass. Again, a progressive victory.

In most liturgical areas, the progressives have had their way, normally using the strategy of disobedience then asking for permission; for example, girl altar servers, using the laity for the distribution of Communion, and Communion under both species.

If the archbishop desires balance, then his admonition begs the question: what is the standard by which we measure balance? In all fairness, the Mass of our average parish bears little resemblance to the Mass of the centuries leading up to the Second Vatican Council. The orientation is towards the people, not towards God. The emphasis is on community and active participation, not on uniting the prayers of the faithful with those of the priest in the offering of the Holy Sacrifice of Mass.

Again, how to measure "balance" when balance left the building nearly five decades ago?

I believe the answer to be in the original documents of the Second Vatican Council read, as they were meant to be read, through the light of tradition. There must be a re-assessment of Mass orientation, of the music, of the architecture, and of the art used in churches. This cannot be done at the parish level.

In our given time, in this endeavor specified by Archbishop Muller, balance can only come through the Second Vatican Council illuminated by the light of tradition and not by the desires of an influential progressive movement that, in the real sense of effecting Catholic life and identity, has held sway for so long now.

Bridge Out Ahead

On Christmas Eve, it's my family's humble Christmas shopping tradition (Can one time with the intention of doing this from now on be considered a tradition?) to converge on downtown Brainerd and shop for each other. There are five of us, our daughters ranging in age from 8-11, 2nd-6th grade. Depending on who's shopping for whom, we begin our shopping adventure in groups of two and three.

My oldest daughter stopped in at our used book store and purchased a 1975 edition of a book on the post-concilliar documents from the Second Vatican Council as one of my gifts. While the original documents were difficult to locate in the pocket-sized paperback, the post-concilliar documents literally jumped out of the pages...like warning signs along a highway indicating in letters large and bold: Bridge Out!

This year has been designated as the "Year of Faith" by our beloved Pope Benedict XVI, and, as such, the pope has promoted the study of the original documents of the Second Vatican Coucil, a council near and dear to the hearts of many who lived in that era.

My main concern, as a Catholic convert who came into the Church through attending a traditional Latin Mass offered at St.Augustines in South St. Paul, was and is the document on the Sacred Liturgy, the Sacrosanctum Concilium, mainly, because I want to know why the one thing that drew me to the Catholic Church is that very thing that the Church seems to turn Its back on.

As I read the original documents, while there are a few vague, subjective terms and phrases that seem to dangle at the end of otherwise clearly orthodox, traditional statements, it's difficult to find tangible evidence to clearly explain the astounding difference between the Masses as offered before and after the Second Vatican Council.

Now, I have my answer.

The changes, many of which must be considered to be abrupt and not the result of the organic evolution essential to authentic growth of the Catholic liturgy, changes oft described as being in line with the "spirit of Vatican II," were suggested after the Council at the hands of liturgical committees. These suggestions, which in most cases seem to have been embraced and embellished upon in the ensuing years after the Council, constitute a recipe for division much like what has happened in the Protestant churches: Each town provides its own version of that denomination's faith until the next round of division occurs, at which time, the First Methodist Church of Fill-in-the-Blank spawns the Church of Moral Relativity and the Church of the Campfire Song-singers.

In these post-Concilliar docs, time and again, age-old, tried-and-true practices, and even the orientation and emphasis of the Mass, are casually swept aside in carrying forward the cause of "active participation" and "ecumenism" with an emphasis on adapting the attitude of the Mass to each local community. As the myriad of potential options even now continue to find pride of place in local parishes, the sense of the universality of the Mass as a bridge connecting all Catholics through time and space becomes ever more obscured.

In the end, the infusion of so many options, attitudes, and orientations into local parishes have all but replaced this bridge with a vast armada of ferrys and tug-driven barges, each captain striving to negotiate the ever-turbulent waters in his own way.

Of course, from a perch atop the mountain of abuses, innovation, novelties, fallen away Catholics, and confusion that came about in the wake of these post-Concilliar changes, it's not difficult to see the stress points and general weakness of the bridge. It's also not difficult to lay blame.

What is difficult is to repair the infrastructure.

Thankfully, there is hope, and there is movement. In homilies, books, and the Catholic media, there's a growing conviction that we must overcome the attitudes of dissent and experimentation that led the Church to this precipice. There's a growing conviction to span the precipice with a bridge built upon the fullness of Catholic heritage, traditions, and worship.

The footings have been set, and the building has begun, but the bridge has yet to span the distance.

Until it does, the warning signs that keep popping up along this road we've been traveling start to take on the urgency of a countdown, with the same repeating message as the number of miles ahead decreases: Bridge Out.

Pass it on

Sometimes, a concept has already been expressed so well that even the accidental discovery of that expression creates the obligation to pass it on. With that in mind, I offer this excerpt from a sermon of St. John Baptiste Marie Vianney:
"In a nation, or a state, or a family, or community, where religion is despised and allowed to perish, there the process of disintegration will invariably occur. It was in the year 1789 when this process was very evident in the State of France. After the holy Catholic faith had been derided and scoffed at for many years, in word and picture, in writings and plays, in public lectures and so-called clubs, and after unbelief and licentiousness had been given full sway, the French revolution broke out. All religion was considered a mortal crime. Priests were killed when they could not flee or hide themselves. Churches were robbed and desecrated; in some places the wickedness went even so far that a lewd woman was placed upon the altar, and mock ceremonies carried on before her as the goddess of reason. When the strong barriers, religion and conscience, which keep man from all wickedness, had been removed throughout the whole country, a new power, as it were, the raging of the devil, broke loose all over the land...

"...My friends! the world is round and there is nothing new under the sun; it has never been possible to gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles. What a man sows, that will he reap. We, also shall have the same experience, we shall have to suffer for what we ourselves or  for what others have sown in fatal self conceit; with us also the same causes will produce like results, and the laws of nature and necessity, bearing the testimony of the history of 7,000 years, will be confirmed in the future as they have been in the past...

"...Let us then open our eyes; for it is high time that we awake from sleep. The enemy stands before us in full power, and it seems to me as if I could hear our Saviour repeat the words which he once spake in the garden of Gethsemani when he was taken prisoner: 'This is your hour and the power of darkness.'

"Oh! let each one ask himself in earnestness and sincerity today, at this holy hour, 'Whither goest thou?'"

From_Sermons for the Sundays and Feasts of the Year by the Ven. Cure of Ars (Jean Baptiste Marie Vianney)_, "Sermons for the Feast Days of the Year," pp. 36-37, The Neumann Press, 1995 reprint of 1901 edition.

The quiet silence of the night

"'While all things were in quiet silence, and the night was in the midst of her course, Thy almighty Word leapt down from heaven, from Thy royal throne...into the midst of the land' (Wis 18; 14-15) O my God, You came down from heaven to save the world, and the world which is Yours, the work of Your hands, has not even a lodging to offer You!"

_Divine Intimacy_, Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, O.C.D., Colloquy for December 24th, p. 84

Christmas: It ain't over 'til it's over!

It's the fourth week of Advent which means that we are nearing the crescendo of seasonal anti-Christmas court cases, documentaries, and stories in the media. Even as Christmas shoppers support local commerce by spending more money than they probably should on presents, any attempt at spreading holly jolly by a salutation of "Merry Christmas" at the checkout line is, more often than not, met with a smirk and a condenscending "Happy Holidays," or "Seasons Greetings." One can feel a bit downtrodden under the constant barrage, a bit like walking uphill against the wind.

Fortunately, Catholics have options to help tune out secular noise. First and foremost, Advent's the start of a new liturgical year, and God blessed the Catholic Church with a depth of traditions, practices, and liturgical worship that far surpasses any cultural or judicial trends and/or fashion. True, many of the most beautiful, inspirational, and reverent examples were suppressed during the era of the Second Vatican Council changes to the liturgy, but they still exist. They've just been misplaced. All we have to do is find them again, and fortunately, the wind is changing and the vine is ever growing. Often it takes growing a little to realize that "where-you've-been" is essential to understanding "who-you-are."

In Advent, we have awaited the coming of the Lord for nearly four weeks. Soon, we will celebrate Christmas. While the day commands special celebrations, feasts, the giving of presents, Mass, and a multitude of family traditions, it should also be of comfort and good cheer that this day, Christmas Day, is only the beginning of the Christmas season.

The 12 Days of Christmas begin with Christmas Day and extend through the Feast of the Epiphany, the feast commemorating the manifestation of Christ to the gentiles; however, liturgically speaking, the Christmas season would extend to the octave of the Epiphany, January 13th, as well. And, in a spiritual sense, the season can be discerned in the time extending through to Whitsunday, or the Purification of the Virgin Mary on Feburary 2, the feast commemorating the day on which our blessed Mother, following the Jewish custom, obediently underwent purification in the temple baths forty days after having given birth.

The Christmas season is filled with feasts that, if kept properly, greatly enhance the season's Christian nature:

• Christmas Day (Christ's Mass): the Nativity—December 25
• Feast of St. Stephen: the first martyr of the Christian church—December 26
• Feast of St. John the Evangelist—December 27
• Feast of the Holy Innocents: commemorating the martyrs of King Herod's attempt to kill the Christ—December 28
• The Feast of Thomas Becket, martyr (killed in his cathedral in defense of the Church from the encroachments of civil power)—December 29
• The Sunday within the Octave of Christmas
• Feast of St. Sylvester, pope (during the time when the Church obtained freedom from Roman persecution in the 4th century)—December 31
• The Octave of the Nativity: the Circumcision of Our Lord in the Extraordinary Form calendar and the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, in the Ordinary Form calendar—January 1
• The Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus—January 2 (or the Sunday between The Circumcision and Epiphany)
• The Epiphany—January 6
• The Feast of the Holy Family—first Sunday after Epiphany
• The Commemoration of the Baptism of Our Lord which marks the end of the Christmas cycle—January 13
• The time after the Epiphany: the time leading to the Purification of the Virgin Mary on Whitsunday*

So what if the department stores and malls morph back to business-as-usual by December 26th? When it comes to the Christmas season, I'll invoke Yogi Berra and spread the news, "It ain't over 'til it's over!"

*this list was created through a combination of memory, my parish calendar, the St. Andrew Daily Missal (1956), and an excellent list and summary of the season found in this article at the fisheaters web page .

O Antiphons Vespers, Magnificat: December 22nd

O King of the Gentiles and their Desire, the Cornerstone who makest both one: come and save man, whom Thou didst form out of clay.*

My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior;
For He hath regarded the lowliness of His handmaid; behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed;
For He that is mighty hath done great things to me, and holy is His name;
And His mercy is from generation unto generations, to them that fear Him.
He hath shown might in His arm, He hath scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart.
He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble.
He hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He hath sent away empty.
He hath received Israel His servant, being mindful of His mercy.
According as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed forever.

*_A Short Breviary_, The Liturgical Press, Collegeville, MN 1942

O Antiphons Vespers, Magnificat: December 21st

O Dayspring, brightness of the eternal Light and Sun of Justice: come and enlighten them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.*

My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior;
For He hath regarded the lowliness of His handmaid; behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed;
For He that is mighty hath done great things to me, and holy is His name;
And His mercy is from generation unto generations, to them that fear Him.
He hath shown might in His arm, He hath scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart.
He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble.
He hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He hath sent away empty.
He hath received Israel His servant, being mindful of His mercy.
According as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed forever.

*_A Short Breviary_, The Liturgical Press, Collegeville, MN 1942

O Antiphons Vespers, Magnificat: December 20th

O Key of David and Sceptre of the house of Israel, who openest and no man shutteth, who shuttest and no man openeth: come and bring forth from his prison-house the captive that sitteth in darkness and in the shadow of death.*

My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior;
For He hath regarded the lowliness of His handmaid; behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed;
For He that is mighty hath done great things to me, and holy is His name;
And His mercy is from generation unto generations, to them that fear Him.
He hath shown might in His arm, He hath scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart.
He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble.
He hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He hath sent away empty.
He hath received Israel His servant, being mindful of His mercy.
According as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed forever.

*_A Short Breviary_, The Liturgical Press, Collegeville, MN 1942

O Antiphons Vespers, Magnificat: December 17th

O Wisdom, who camest out of the mouth of the Most High, reaching from end to end and ordering all things mightily and sweetly: come and teach us the way of prudence.*

My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior;
For He hath regarded the lowliness of His handmaid; behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed;
For He that is mighty hath done great things to me, and holy is His name;
And His mercy is from generation unto generations, to them that fear Him.
He hath shown might in His arm, He hath scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart.
He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble.
He hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He hath sent away empty.
He hath received Israel His servant, being mindful of His mercy.
According as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed forever.

*_A Short Breviary_ The Liturgical Press, Collegeville, MN 1942

O Antiphons at Vespers, Magnificat: December 18th

O Adonai and Leader of the house of Israel, who didst appear to Moses in the flame of the burning bush and didst give unto him the law on Sinai: come and with an outstretched arm redeem us.*

My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior;
For He hath regarded the lowliness of His handmaid; behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed;
For He that is mighty hath done great things to me, and holy is His name;
And His mercy is from generation unto generations, to them that fear Him.
He hath shown might in His arm, He hath scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart.
He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble.
He hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He hath sent away empty.
He hath received Israel His servant, being mindful of His mercy.
According as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed forever.





*_A Short Breviary_, The Liturgical Press, Collegeville, MN 1942

O Antiphons at Vespers, Magnificat: December 19th

O Root of Jesse, who standest for an ensign of the people, before whom kings shall keep silence and unto whom the Gentiles shall make their supplication: come to deliver us, and tarry not.*

My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior;
For He hath regarded the lowliness of His handmaid; behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed;
For He that is mighty hath done great things to me, and holy is His name;
And His mercy is from generation unto generations, to them that fear Him.
He hath shown might in His arm, He hath scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart.
He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble.
He hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He hath sent away empty.
He hath received Israel His servant, being mindful of His mercy.
According as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed forever.

15th Century Jesse tree

*Dec. 19 Vespers, _A Short Breviary_, The Liturgical Press, Collegeville, MN 1942

Penance and Politics: A comment

The USCCB recently released an article on its 5-step pastoral strategy to “rebuild” the culture.

Strategy point #4 caught my attention and raised a red flag: "Abstinence from meat and fasting on Fridays are encouraged for the intention of the protection of Life, Marriage, and Religious Liberty, recognizing the importance of spiritual and bodily sacrifice in the life of the Church."

While there can be no question as to the importance of these intentions and of the essential nature of engaging in mortification as a means of self-giving/sacrifice, applying these intentions as specified in this strategy point puts this particular form of Friday penance and the purpose traditionally associated with it at risk of going the way of Ember Days, an essential practice which has fallen into obscurity and neglect.

A few years ago, the blog _Rorate Caeli_ offered the article _The Glow of the Ember Days_, in which Michael P. Foley makes an observation pertinent to the topic of this post. Mr. Foley writes this about a directive by the Sacred Congregation of Divine Worship’s 1969 General Norms for the Liturgical Year and the Calendar regarding the practice of Ember Days. "... the SCDW allowed the Ember Days to take on an indeterminate number of meanings that have nothing to do with nature, such as 'peace, the unity of the Church, the spread of the faith'...the 1969 directive has no safeguards to keep newly assigned meanings from displacing the Embertides’ more fundamental purpose."

I would submit Mr. Foley's observation as a word of warning regarding the addition of new meanings to traditional practices, and  I would add these questions regarding the "fundamental purpose" of the Traditional Catholic penance of abstinence from meat on Friday: 1) What could be more essential to rebuilding the culture than doing a common form of penance honoring the day on which our Lord suffered, died, and was buried, and 2) Why risk displacing this essential fundamental purpose of Friday penance?

If it is relief from the oppression of recently passed laws that the bishops seek, if it is rebuilding a fallen culture in this country at which the bishops take aim, the road must go through a revitalized Catholic identity and not through inventing new applications for practices already rich in tradition. Revitalizing Catholic identity can only happen by allowing for and promoting Catholic heritage in the form of practice and worship, not by obscurring it or derailing it with re-creations and innovations, no matter how good the intentions might be.

In reparation for insults to Our Lord....

In reparation for an irreverent Mass as shown in this Rorate Caeli blog post.

Blessed be God
Blessed be His Holy Name
Blessed be Jesus Christ true God and true man
Blessed be the Name of Jesus
Blessed be His most Sacred Heart
Blessed be His most Precious Blood
Blessed be Jesus in the most Holy Sacrament of the Altar
Blessed be the Holy Spirit the Paraclete
Blessed be the Holy Mother of God, Mary most holy
Blessed be her Holy and Immaculate Conception
Blessed be her Glorious Assumption
Blessed be the name of Mary, Virgin and Mother
Blessed be St. Joseph, her most chaste spouse
Blessed be God in His angels and in His saints

Year of Faith: an opportunity for renewal

Faith is a gift from God, but, for our part, we must receive it and nurture it. Essential to the nurturing process, but routinely overlooked in the Year of Faith dialogue, is an official Church narrative that faithfully presents what Catholics have experienced since the dramatic changes imposed after Vatican II. The USCCB has produced several articles promoting a narrative which declares that, 1) Vatican II was the second Pentecost, and 2) Vatican II ushered in a great renewal. Meanwhile, three popes have lamented a crisis in the Church that began with the dramatic, unprecedented changes imposed in the name of "the spirit of Vatican II." Parish life over the last few decades has been more about experimentation, innovation, and a modus operandi based on dissent than anything even close to spiritual renewal, much less exhibiting fruits that point to a "second Pentecost."

Maintaining a biased (at best) or false (at the worst) narrative on the fruits of Vatican II only confuses the faithful, planting seeds of doubt which inevitably damage the credibility of the narrator.

It's time to put away the old narrative and embrace a new, more accurate narrative that inspires faith during this Year of Faith. This is the "great renewal" that must occur now: the renewal of faith in our Church, in our Pope, in our bishops, and in our priests. This renewal of faith must start with a narrative that is faithful to the truth of Catholic lives since the time of the changes resulting from the Second Vatican Council.