Identity: Sacred Music

Hello Gentle Readers... it has been a while since I have last posted an "Identity" entry, but the timing was right; with a long weekend at hand, and the creative writing juices flowing, I ran into the catalyst of my current post.

I recently worked on a project over the last three months of last year to create an Anthology of Sacred Polyphony musical scores as a Christmas gift for the music director at my parish. It was quite a labor of love to comb through the vast treasure of Catholic music tradition to find just 100 selected scores of music.

I always new that the Catholic music tradition was big... but as I learned more, I was overwhelmed by the sheer volume of just lovely, inspiring, and uplifting sacred music that was there... and I now know that I only scratched the surface.

Now I am not talking the vast quantity of Gregorian chant that fill volumes of books and manuscripts in monasteries, abbeys, and cathedrals... no, I am talking about the plethora of sacred polyphony that for centuries was the voice of the Church's prayer, springing out of, and living side-by-side with its Gregorian chant source.

There is the Roman school , the Spanish school, the English school... with great composers like Palestrina, Victoria, Tallis, Byrd, DuBois, Anerio, Cherubini, et alli... but here is the "kicker"... where do we now hear this sacred music? Is it in our parishes? Is it in our cathedrals? No, sadly most of this lovely music, if even performed any longer, is now to be found in concert halls!

Yes, sadly, our secular, culture-of-death, Godless society even recognizes the beauty of this music, but we do not hear it in out churches and cathedrals! Now I am perhaps being a bit harsh for the Papal liturgies are filled with this sacred music, and more and more cathedrals are being to rediscover this patrimony of the Church... but at the parish level we do not find this music which all the world can recognize when they hear it, that it is something "special"... something "awesome".

I have friends that say "oh, I prefer the folk music at Mass"... and I want it clear for the record... as an Italian, I have quite a love for folk music... but folk music is exactly what the name implies... "music of the folk"... i.e. the people! It is not God's music! Folk music is wonderful for a wedding party or dinner party, but worship of Almighty God calls for something different.

So please, someone please explain to me... why is scared music almost universally recognized as timeless and beautiful... and worthy of concert hall performance... but yet we do not hear it where it originated?

Slowly but surely, "brick by brick" as Fr. Z. would say... we are beginning to see changes, thanks to the example being set by the Holy Father, and the number of younger priests who are open to more sacred music in continuity with the Tradition of the Church, and the work of folks like Jeffrey Tucker et alli involved with getting chant and sacred polyphony more widely rediscovered and available.

Lastly, to those critics that say only a concert choir can sing that "fancy, Latin" stuff... I ask them to attend Mass at St. Ann's in Charlotte, N.C. where they will hear wonderful music from a very small amateur choir... it can happen... and it is part of our Catholic identity that we need to recover!

Identity: Church Militant

I must admit, gentle Readers, that I have been at times sometimes frustrated and saddened; and well, honestly, quite skeptical of the "brick by brick" concept. Things feel like they are moving only at a glacial pace, but then I step back and think about the over 2,000 year old history of Christ's Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church and realize that 40 years, while a generation of souls, is very little in the life of the Church. Even at a glacial pace, glaciers move miles when given time.

Part of what helps me is that I love to study history, and in the 2,000 year history of Christ's Church, there have been some really terrible epochs... times when State authorities or popular revolution has tried to extinguish the light of the Church... and at times it has appeared that these evil forces had succeeded, but the Church has survived! -- protected and guided by the Holy Spirit and witnessed by the blood of the Martyrs.

Whether Roman persecutions, English Reformation suppression, French Revolution anti-clericalism, Post-Vatican II liturgical confusion, and Obama administration anti-Catholicism... the Church will survive until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ!

But we must also defend the Church, and we must be witnesses to her Truth as the martyrs of the past, and frankly, the martyrs of today... look at Iraq, Iran, N. Korea, China, Philippines, Latin America, and so many other places that even in today's "enlightened" world, Christians are tortured and murdered for their faith in Jesus Christ.

We must stand up to be counted in the public square as well as in the private square of our own homes. We much teach and live the Faith that has been given to us to our children, family, and friends... Pray for our Pope! Pray for our Church and her priests! Let history not record us as deserters of our Faith, weak and lacking in courage; but rather, may it record us as a generation that lived to up to the traditional teaching of the the Church Militant who at the end of the race had fought the good fight.


Tu es Petrus, et super hanc petram aedificabo Ecclesiam meam, et portae inferi non praevalevunt adversus eam. -- Matthew 16, 18

Fact: Second Anniversary of Summorum Pontificum

Today marks the second full year since our Holy Father's Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum and the blessings and graces of the liberation of the Extraordinary form of the Mass continue to be felt worldwide!

A day does not go by that I do not thank God Almighty for giving us this Pope at this time in our history. He is an extraordinary teacher and with Summorum Pontificum he unleashed the full graces of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass to begin recovering our Catholic Identity.



Without his efforts, none of this would have been possible....

Missa Cantata at St. Ann's in Charlotte, NC

Italy

San Giovanni Laterano -- Rome, Italy

Notre Dame Cathedral -- Paris, France

Westminster Cathedral -- London, UK

St. John Cantius -- Chicago, USA

Lourdes, France

Seton Hall University, USA

Poland

Holland

Germany

France

Dublin, Ireland

Italy

Philippines

For the first time in over 40 years, the Extraordinary form of the Mass has become more and more accessible, offered again in the many of the great cathedrals and basilicae of the world, as it had been offered over 1500 years prior. Its reverence and graces wash over the nostalgic and young alike. As faithful come into contact with this form of the Mass, many are touched and pulled closer to the ancient Tradition of Holy Mother Church.

"What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even considered harmful. It behooves all of us to preserve the riches which have developed in the Church’s faith and prayer, and to give them their proper place." (Benedict XVI Explanatory letter to Summorum Pontificum)

Thank you so much Holy Father for returning this treasure of the Church to the faithful and for being the wonderful Shepherd that your are to us.


Viva il Papa!!

Identity: The Crucifix

Christ is risen... Alleluia! He is truly risen... Alleluia, alleluia!

I start this posting with that well-known dialogue, because we worship a living and risen Lord. Without the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, we would have no salvation... but without His Passion and Death, there would be no Resurrection!

Christ's sacrifice of himself on Calvary for the salvation of the world is the key act of redemption itself, an it is what the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass brings us to... to the very foot of the Cross of Christ at Calvary... standing there with His Blessed Mother and the Apostle who loved Him!

The Crucifix is a key identifier of Catholic identity... It hangs in our churches (or should!), it leads our processions (or should!), it is venerated (or should be!), it hangs around our necks and on our rosaries. It is what reminds us Catholics of the great love and sacrifice that our Savior and God offered for us! It invites us to not be afraid to carry our own crosses and to offer up our own sufferings.

We are often accused by our Protestant brothers of idol worship, or even worse, that we worship a dead God. But it is they that are missing the point... that without Christ's death on the cross there is no salvation or glory for them to preach about. We Catholics to not look about the Crucifix that hangs in front of us the "end" of Christ's journey... but the portal by which we will also enter into the Death & Resurrection of Jesus.

We Catholics look at the suffering that our God endured for our sins... to remind us how our continued sinning only adds to the suffering which our Lord continues to feel... for in God there is all time, and no beginning and end, so he feels all to well the pain of the sins that we continue to lay upon his yoke.

If one is honest with themselves they realize the difference that one internalizes when gazing upon a cross without a Corpus versus one with our Suffering Lord. It is not idol worship... it is visualization of the Love that is God.

We as Catholics cannot allow for the Crucifix to loose its power to convey that important message of Salvation... we cannot allow it to be replaced by a cross without the Corpus... or to have the important sacrificial offering to be replaced by a cross with the Risen Christ "jumping off " the cross... Christ rose from the tomb, not the cross! He suffered and died on the cross... for us!!

In a time when even some of the shepherds of the flock seem to have forgotten that Christ's offering was a Sacrifice, we must ensure that the Crucifix stands always before us to ground us to what the Church teaches and what we believe... Lex orandi, Lex credenti!

Stabat Mater dolorosa, juxta crucem lacimosa

Identity: Veiling of Images for Passiontide

As we are deep into Passiontide, I thought that I would share a small element of our lost Catholic Identity that is starting to make a bit more of a comeback. The covering of statues and sacred images beginning with the First Passion Sunday (i.e. the Sunday before Palm Sunday).

As with all the sacramentals of the Catholic Church, the imagery and focus that it creates for the faithful is amazing. An old priest I knew used to describe it as the Church, as the Body of Christ, dying in a physical way. Father Z on his blog as also described it similarly in that Holy Mother Church begins to slowly "take things away" from us, with the lacking making us more away of what is missing the deeper we get into the Triduum until Holy Friday when the silence and bareness of the church gives a stunning symbolism of the dying and suffering Saviour.

To put it another way... it is the same feeling I get after the Feast of the Epiphany when I take down all the Christmas decorations and the tree... the emptiness created in the house is amazing. That is the same feeling that the Church is trying to create in us... a feeling of emptiness and loss... until that glorious moment of the Great Easter Vigil... the Gloria in Excelsis and the opening of the lights, the lighting of the candles, and yes, the unveiling of the images! All that was lost in returned to us and more!

In my old beloved Italian parish of San Leonardo in Boston, we move from Friday's statue in the crypt church of Gesu' Morto (the dead Jesus statue) last seen as the "burial cloth" is pulled over it to the Easter Vigil uncovering on the high altar of the grand statue of Gesu' Risorto! (the risen and glorious Christ).

Some of our protestant brothers dislike our use of statuary and sacred images, but we Catholics do not worship the images themselves , but use them in helping a human with five "physical" senses to create the mental and "spiritual" imagine.

As I mentioned, the more liberal or "modern" parishes have shunned this veiling practice, but it should not surprise us, at least here in Charlotte, that where the more traditional and orthodox priest lead their flocks... namely St. Ann's and St. Michael's... the images are veiled! (Note: I understand that St. Michael's images are not covered this year, but have been in the past).

So as we move into this Holiest of weeks... and "die" with Christ & his Holy Church let us pray in the Holy Friday song of the Italians...

Sono stato, io l'ingrato; Gesu' mio, perdon, pieta'!

Identity: Male Altar Servers

Once again I must beg the indulgence of my dear Readers for my long absence from posting. Much of the goings-on in our economy have hit hard in the Banking industry of which I am remain quite proud to work for. That said, I may have a few future posts that will express my absolute horror of the governmental direction of this country, but that is for the future if I decide I want to wade into potential political controversy.

Although today’s posting may not be so uncontroversial either, but it goes to the heart of a key element of Catholic identity that we have lost: Male-only altar servers! No I am sure this will upset some folks who will immediately take issue with the central thesis of post, but to you say in advance, get your own blog and share your failed ideas there (I know, perhaps I bit uncharitable there, but I feel strongly on this one.)

Young men and boy altar servers were once the norm of our Faith. Unlike what you see in most parishes today, it was the only norm, and it was often the key to the call of a sacred priestly vocation. The development of a bond between priest and server in the old rite was very important in sparking the instillation of education and understanding of the priest’s role in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. The boys who had to get up early before school, even on Saturdays to help serve Father at Mass, especially for private Masses, was key to showing the young man that even without a church-full of people, the offering of Mass was a constant need to be lifted up to God! It gave new meaning to Christ’s words “where 2 or more of you are gathered in my name, there am I also!”

The server’s role at Adoration and Benediction, his preparation of the priestly attire and holy accruements, the server’s responses on behalf of the people naturally brought the young man into a role as an intermediary not unlike that of the priest, but obviously to a lesser degree. However it was in these encounters of serving and assisting the priest in the mystery of the sacraments, that if there was a calling, the young man could begin to explore it, advancing his involvement in serving and more importantly, sharing his discernment with his pastor.

Now, some folks will say… “Yeah right, so if I even agree with your principle premise that proximity to the priest in the offering of the Sacraments leads to vocations, then there are still male altar servers who can have that calling take place.”

And now we get to the crux of the controversy. (Disclaimer: I am not a researcher, and I will not for the sake of a part-time blog bother to find the citations that will prove my point, because what I will be stating is all too readily known by those who have or know young people.) When we think of the typical age of an altar server, perhaps 8-18 years old, we all know a couple of facts…1) girls develop faster at younger ages that do boys, and 2) boys want very little to do with girls at these younger ages. We must clearly face the facts that boys and girls are different (so are men and women, and that is the way in which God made us!)

By allowing girls to serve at the altar, we cause harm to the cause of vocations and general confusion of the faithful in the following ways:

• The faster developing girls “catch on faster” to the tasks of serving and fill a natural leadership role which leads to the girls being “in charge” and that boys, who want little to do with them in general at this age, will decide not to be a part of a group where the girls are doing and leading.

• By having girls at the altar, they too, as with a boy, get to see up close the priest’s life and have a natural desire to want to emulate or become it (as we would hope for a boy) but which is a totally false vocation for the girl. It sets her, and the faithful that see her at the altar, up for a confusion of roles.

I am not out of my tree or in another universe here. And those individuals who are honest with themselves and have seen parish life outside of the comfort of perhaps their own parish know what I am saying is true. A mixed server parish has a majority ratio of their servers as girls, and the excuse is always “we cannot get enough boys who want to serve.” (hmm, I wonder why?)

Parishes that use boy-only servers are full of young men and boys willing to serve. Why at St. Michael’s parish in Gastonia, NC, near Charlotte, the 10.00am Sunday Mass (Novus Ordo) can have as many as 17 servers for that one Mass alone! All dressed in their cassocks and cotta, and the mother of 3 of the boys has told me that her boys love to serve because “it makes them feel like men”. Isn’t that a nice thing to see… a positive role model for your young men in today’s society?

Also, at the weekly Mass in the Extraordinary form held at St. Ann’s parish at 6.00pm on Wednesday nights, while it is a still a Low Mass with only two servers, there can been as many as six additional boys “sitting in choir” (a total of 8), ready and waiting for the time that Father Reid can progress the Low Mass to a Missa Cantata. And listen to this...there are boys standing in the back of the church longing for their opportunity to be serving the altar…LONGING to be closer to the priest and to Christ on the altar. My dear Readers… this is from where our future priests will come!

If you doubt the power of God’s call on our young or of those you who consider it an honor to serve the priest, I would ask you to go over to the blog of an incredible young man whom I have referenced before. His journey of discernment and his call to faith is heart-warming, and I ask all of you to pray for him that God’s Will be done, whatever path that may be for him.

Lastly, if anyone doubt to power and draw of serving at God’s altar, and being around other religious and reverent minded boys, please take the time to read St. John Bosco’s biography on the life of St. Domenico Savio. As part of my Lenten journey this year, I was moved to read it again, and it never fails to bring tears to my eyes when one sees the faith and innocence of this saintly youth, who grew up in as difficult and evil a time as what we feel now, but managed to live by his motto of “Death, but not sin!” I feel so unworthy when I measure myself against this young boy!

But the key to my point regarding St. Domenico Savio is not just his holiness, but through his closeness of serving St. Don Bosco, and inspiring others of his age to also participate, vocations grew, from which came the entire Salesian order! The key to any generation’s future is dependent on its youth. The future of our priesthood is likewise dependent on the male youths of our parishes. We must do all that we can to help any calling that God may be sending to be heard amongst the din of debauchery that society surrounds our youth with…the true work of the Devil to deprive us of the lifeblood that the sacred hands of priest are concentrated for… the Eucharist!

Ss Domenico Savio e Luigi Gonzaga, Patrons of Catholic Youth, pray for our young people and for holy priests!

Identity: Priestly and Religious Attire

I have written many times before about those key elements of Catholic identity that used to just "scream" Catholicism... Fish on Fridays, Reverent Silence, the Real Presence, etc. One that has been burning in the back of my mind for quite some time is the topic of today's post: Priestly & Religious Attire.

This has recently bubbled to the top of my mind because of a two recent events... 1) I saw an example that screamed out to me and 2) a very long airport delay that has provided me with that precious commodity of time.

After many, many months of business travel, I was finally able to steal a weekend back home in Boston and went to my beloved immigrant parish in which I grew up and have so often shared with you as a model of maintaining much of it's Catholic identity. As I finished kneeling before the tabernacle before Mass, a number of old and dear friends noticed me and gave a nod or wave.

Then two young men came up the aisle in their jeans, turtle-neck sweaters, and back-packs, waltzed pass the tabernacle and into the sacristy. I said to myself, "Well, Father must have gotten some new servers since I had left, but they need a bit of a lesson on reverence and dress."
Father then came out of the Sacristy, in his Franciscan habit and came over to say hello to me. I thought this was a bit odd, since Mass was very near starting, but then it happened...

To my horror, the two young men reappeared from the Sacristy, one in a rose chasuble, the other in a rose Deacon's stole! The priest had his turtle neck sweater sticking out of the neck of the alb. After Mass, back in the "civilian" clothes, back-packs on... and out to "mission" to the masses!

But exactly what mission? I find it no small coincidence that shortly after this happened, our Holy Father addressed the priests of Rome and told them that they need to be visibile in the world. If they are seen leaving the church, and walking into the caffe, the priest and deacon that I described above bear no witness to their sacred office.

And I do not mean to only speak of priests, but other religious too, who have "kicked the habit" and moved into their stylish business suits with a lapel cross. We have children today that have never seen a nun in habit which gives the horrible impression that they "no longer exist". Who would ever desire to be a nun when they have never "seen" one.

One can say..."clothes not make the man" ... but I differ strongly with that line of argument. When I dressed as a kid in my "Sunday best" I knew I could not do the "normal" things that would get them dirty... it was different. When dressed for a wedding or business meeting... there is an air of difference in those attending. Even now there is a "corporate" uniform that I must wear.

Taking this discussion outside of the religious context... what is more reassuring (unless you are speeding!) than the site of policeman in uniform? The uniform that they wear immediately broadcasts their vocation and role in society. The only time that they do not wear it is when "under-cover" to try to hide their identity. The witness of priestly and religious attire does make a difference. The lack of its display gives an air of contempt and shame for the sacred office for which they should be happy and proud to have been called.

It is amazing to me just how inter-related so many of our stuggles withing the Church are directly related to each other and to the loss of our Catholic identity. A priest or religious not wearing religious attire has a direct impact on vocations.... the same as allowing the loss of male-only altar servers.... and the loss of sacred reverence as we have discussed in an early post.

So, I hope and pray this is all a passing "fad" of those priest and religious raised in the turbulent 60's when distain for authority and "uniformity" was in clear ascendance. I pray for all priest... I pray for more priests... I pray for many more holy priests.

St. John Vianney, Patron of all Priests, pray for our holy priests!

Identity: The Saints

Gentle Readers... I must beg your forgiveness for my long silence, but alas, my day job is in banking, and if you have been following the news these last number of months, to say that things have been busy lately would be the understatement of the year. (St. Matthew, Patron of Bankers, Pray for me)

I am a bit late in posting for All Saints, but given that we are still in November, when Holy Mother Church asks us to pray throughout the month for our Dead, I think the timing will remain appropriate.

As I discussed in my last post regarding the Blessed Virgin Mary, if dedication to her remains strong, our dedication to the rest of the Communion of Saints is beyond waning. When was the last time you heard the Litany of Saints sung or when the life of a Saint was preached from the pulpit. When was the last time that the patron saint of your church was celebrated on his feast day with a special Mass and a procession around the church?

In a time when mankind thinks that they themselves are gods, what need to we have of mere imitators of Christ? But it is exactly this hubris of our modern society that cries out that we more than ever look to the saints of the Church as a model of humility and love of the one true God!

Stand up in your parish and form a society for your parish's patron saint! Organize an annual carnival or bazaar in honor of your saint's feast day and organize a procession... Here is St. Anthony festival in Boston: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sd87gaz9Uw and for continuity, here it is in 1956!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRJwLMDfnsg&NR=1 )

Hold other fundraisers to raise money to award scholarships to students who study and write a paper on the life of a saint of their choice. Have your confirmation students do studies on the confirmation names that they choose.

It is up to all of us, and the parish priests to again bring these holy models and imitators of Christ back into focus so that we sinful and weak humans might have comfort in fact that there is hope for us a well, since the saints were human too.

Santa Maria, San Giuseppe, e San Orante... Orate pro nobis!

Identity: The Blessed Virgin Mary

As we celebrate today the great feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, I thought it would be appropriate to discuss Mary’s special place in our Catholic Identity. It is actually one of the brighter spots in the health of our identity, for devotion to the Blessed Mother, while perhaps waning, is not dead like so many other key elements of our identity that I have already discussed or plan to in future posts.

Mary’s special place of honor among Christians has existed since Christ Himself “consigned” her to the love and care of John (and the Church) as he hung from the Cross. She was there for every step of her beloved son’s life, from her Fiat to bare Him, to His death on the Cross.

And Mary was there for others, whether her cousin Elizabeth in her time if need, or interceding for the first time at the Wedding of Cana where Christ performed His first miracle. From the earliest days of Christianity, she was considered to be Theotokos, the Mother of God, and the Church defended this title through many heresies.

At the local level, this love and devotion to Mary was shown in a number of ways: May Day Coronations, the Rosary, yard statues, scapulars, medallions, etc. One of the fastest ways to know if someone was Catholic was by notice if a Marian statue was in the front yard or a Miraculous Medal was around their neck.

Growing up Italian, the impact of Mary cannot be understated. Every street corner in Italy would have a niche with a statue of La Madonna (“Our Lady). Many a village in the Italian countryside had miracles attributed to the Madonna, each carrying their own title like Madonna di Anzano, Madonna della Grazia, Madonna del Soccorso, etc, and even Rome itself… La Madonna Auxillium Christianorum.

From these manifestations of Mary, great religious and civic feasts became a part of the Catholic identity, not only in the village in which the feast originated, but also to where their citizens immigrated. It was this identity that held the community together, drawing people to Christ and His Church, through Mary.

To share an example, here is the Feast of Madonna del Soccorso di Sciacca in Sicily: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ulm31OdUMI

And here is where this identity was carried across the sea to Boston: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3F5lIIxQ_U4

Now sadly, many of these traditions are being lost, or worse, even the feasts themselves are loosing their religious nature and becoming more secular celebrations with the Madonna as a mere prop.

But while we may forget that Mary is our Mother, she has not forgotten us, and like her Son, she has not left us alone… as Fatima, Lourdes, and Guadalupe show. She continues to call us to conversion and to follow her Son.

Let us pray that we like Mary might answer to God’s will… Ecce ancilla Domini…Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum (Luke 1:38)

Identity: The Real Presence

Nothing sets Catholics and the True Church apart from the Protestants than our believe in the Real Presence of Christ -- Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. It is also this believe for which many mock us, and even worse, perform profane sacrilege and desecration against that which is held most precious to us.

This has been all too obvious lately as the Evil One has enlisted unbelieving men as his vulgar accomplices in performing unspeakable acts of desecration. Even in our “enlightened” world, Christ continues to be mocked and injured by sinful men. It is really sad, and even as painful as it is to read , one must really feel sorry and pray for the conversion of these evil people. Even Saul of Tarsus was able to overcome his persecution of Christ to become one of his greatest followers. But for those who take their malevolence to the grave, I shudder to imagine their eternal punishment.

But sadly, one does not have to look to malevolent atheists to find this supreme disrespect; rather you can find it within our own churches! At least the atheists have not been taught nor “confessed by faith” their believe in the Real Presence. I alluded in my discussion of Reverent Silence that there are those within our own credo who show little if any respect for the Blessed Sacrament. They enter the church without genuflecting or reverencing it, if you can even find the Blessed Sacrament in some of our churches.

Most shockingly, it is not only displayed by the laity, but also by some priests! We have all seen priests who walk past the tabernacle without reverencing it, or enter the sanctuary for Mass without genuflecting to the Blessed Sacrament. If the priests do not show it via example, is it any surprise that their flocks do not? I also feel that some of these priests have lost their own believe in the Real Presence which can be seen during the consecration…offered with little if any feeling and without genuflection after the elevation. What a difference from the deep ecstasy that Padre Pio would enter into at the moment of consecration.

At a recent Mass in a very “modern” church here in the diocese of Charlotte, I personally witnessed a horrifying display of Eucharistic abuse. During the communion of the faithful, I notice a woman approaching the priest to take communion. Once she took her communion (in the hand, of course), she pulled out a wrinkled facial tissue and asked the priest for another Host. He seemingly refused.

A woman later in the line reaches the priest, and had a conversation with him. After which, she ascended to the altar, and took the pyx off of the altar and carried it down to where the earlier woman was sitting. The woman then opened the pyx and began to beat it on the palm of her hand like it was a new ketchup bottle in order to remove the Sacred Host… while the other woman was reaching into her purse to pull out her kleenex again. At this point I buried my face into my hands, unable to watch this abuse any longer. I can only imagine how it all ‘ended’, but what was all too clear to me was that these women could not believe that Christ is truly present in that Host.

I sincerely feel that his loss of a core believe is directly related to our loss of focus in our liturgies, most especially the Mass, as the worship of God and His Son’s Sacrifice on the Cross made present again on the altar. Instead, we focus on ourselves, as His Holiness stated in his books on the liturgy, we “create a closed circle in upon ourselves”.

This is further lost by the allowance of non-consecrated hands to touch the sacred Host… by both the faithful and the Extraordinary Ministers of the Eucharist. The mystery is gone, and it is the mystery that allows one to coming into “contact” with Christ mentally (i.e. spiritually) not physically. What is special or sacred about something that anyone can touch?

We must return our focus to the Real Presence and it must be preached and taught from the pulpit… and it must be believed and exampled by our priests! Christ in the tabernacle must be returned to His rightful place on the Altar before the all the Faithful to see and kneelers must be returned to all churches for us to prostrate ourselves before Our Savior. We must return to Communion on the tongue via the priests' hands. Lastly, the return of wide-spread and common-place Eucharistic Adoration and Benediction and 40-Hours Devotion.

Please pray for increased reverence of the Blessed Sacrament and for holy priests to set the example for us… and yes, also for those who profane our Eucharistic Lord. (A true test I my charity I must confess.)

Identity: Fridays are a Day of Penance and Abstinence

Given that as of the writing of this post it is Friday, I thought an interesting topic of Catholic identity to discuss today was the sacredness of Fridays as days of penance and abstinence.

As I have mentioned before, I am not theologian and my discussions of Catholic identity are of those things that non-scholars at one time could identify with their Catholic friends. There was a time when a Catholic could easily be “spotted” in any restaurant or diner on a Friday evening based on what they ordered – Fish.

As kids in Catholic school, we knew Fridays were “different” because we always had morning confessions and Mass. After the morning classes, lunch served in the cafeteria was always fish or macaroni & cheese… even in the public schools!

Outside of schools, the restaurants ran their seafood specials and the all the local social clubs from the Knights of Columbus to the Elks & Eagles Lodges would hold their weekly “Fish Frys”.

But alas, as with many “implementations” of the “spirit” of Vatican II, we decided that we no longer needed to abstain from meat on Fridays... if we choose some other act of charity or suffering. But with poor catechesis on the “change”, the outcome did nothing but cause us to loose complete focus as to what is being commemorated on Fridays, and ignore the abstinence with not other act of penance.

It was also one of the significant changes to our “external” Catholic identity that caused us to be indistinguishable from non-Catholics. Walk into a school cafeteria now on a Friday, and you will see Hot Roast Beef sandwiches or Chili con carne! Any Catholic still wanting to hold the older Tradition is reduced to the pagan vegan menu to find a meatless substitute. Business luncheons and conference no longer take Friday into consideration when creating their menus. Our unique identity to the non-Catholic world has been completely lost!

Still worse, it lead a generation of Catholics who had been taught that you could not eat meat on Fridays one week, but starting next week it’s OK … leading many souls down the slippery slope of Cafeteria Catholicism where they say, “I only believe X, cause the Church can change it like that meat on Fridays thing.” So causal with fasting and abstinence are the “faithful” now, that since they do not have to abstain every Friday, “why should I bother during Lent?”

Fridays were “different” and not because they were the beginning of the weekend; rather, they were days when you were encouraged to think about want happened on that Holy Friday 2000 years ago; to remember that the Sacrifice on the Cross and the shedding of His Holy Blood for the Redemption of His sinful flock; to confess our sins; and to add our sufferings to His.

The Cross & Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ is as important to our salvation as His glorious Resurrection three days later, and we must remember it! We must commemorate it! We must understand that our sins are the source of His Suffering on that Cross…so many Fridays ago.

It was for these reasons that we went to Confession, to Mass, and were required to abstain from meat every Friday! It is for these reasons that we should continue to do this every Friday, not just during the Fridays of Lent.

Pray for a return of greater penance and abstinence in commemoration of His Sufferings.

“And it was almost the sixth hour; and there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour” (Luke 23:44)

Indentity: Inter-City Parish Life in the 1960's

I found this wonderful post from a number of months back on Catholic Online that I wanted to share with you all, dear Readers, that is germane to the purpose of my blogging. I would first state that I am not trying to turn the clock back to the 1960's, but I most certainly am implying that ones true essence and being, i.e. their spiritual identity, need not change as the fashions and fads do.

Just more food for thought...

Identity: Reverent Silence

As I thought about the various elements that I associated with Catholic Identity, one of the many things that comes to mind is what I call “Reverent Silence”. I am sure that formal liturgists or folks more scholarly than me would argue that that term does not exist or means something else. I will be the first to admit that I read a lot, but retain very little, but often I remember key terminologies that then I attach my own meaning… not ideal, but hey, I remember the term at least!

When I speak of “reverent silence” I am speaking of something, perhaps similar to the expression “sacred silence” that I believe others have used, most especially in the context of the quiet moments in the Extraordinary form of the Mass. But specifically, I remember the silence from my Italian parish in the North End of Boston… San Leonardo.

And not really just at San Leonardo, but it was at many of the parishes that I would have occasion to attend in the Northeast, albeit most of them of ethnic in composition (i.e. Italian, Polish, Lithuanian, Irish, Portuguese, etc.)

Walking into any of these churches was as like walking into another world. They had a special aura about them that would immediately jog ones mind into the very clear and obvious sense that you had entered into a different place… a holy place.

My writings will never be confused for Dante’s, but allow me to try to “set the scene/mood” for what was different about these churches. Upon entering, the first thing you would notice was that it was dim! The lights were almost never on, but rather the natural light streaming through the stained glass windows and the flickering glow of candles around the entire perimeter in front of the many statues of the saints… the most noticeable candle being the “big red one” next to the Tabernacle… the one that told the world that God is here!!

As your eyes adjusted to the dim lighting, the second thing that you would sense was the smell… that amazing smell of a hundred years of burning candles and incense that has permeated every surface of the interior. Not unlike that special smell that grandma’s house always had from the decades of cooking sauce and baking cookies! That smell that if you were even blindfolded and had no idea to where you were being taken, you would know it immediately by the smell.

Then you would feel it… and it was absolute silence! This is the “reverent silence” of which I am talking. But it goes with all the elements that I have aforementioned. For entering into this holy Domus Dei, you dare not speak, for there was no reason. The environment would immediately make you want to kneel and speak to God, for you could feel His Presence and nothing could be more important than to begin your prayer.

Anyone that has been to a Eucharistic Adoration, you know that feeling of which I speak, but imagine having that feeling simply walking into the church and having that same sense of God’s Presence. And it mattered not how many were in the church, whether one person or full, the silence was always the same.

So continuing our journey into the “reverent silence”, one takes their place in the pews and begins their prayers, most with their Rosaries, silently passing the worn beads through their fingers, focused solely on the silence of moment and the Real Presence in the Tabernacle.

Then, the silence would be some what broken by sound of the bells in the tower outside calling the faithful socializing in the garden to enter. This was followed swiftly by the slow clicking of the lights, first beginning to light the Sanctuary, then wave after wave though the nave until the interior was transformed before our eyes, with the now clearly seen frescos and colorful statues and glittering gold!

As the echoes of the bells fade away, the silence returns but now with a sense of anticipation. Something special was about to happen. The strong smell of frankincense raises from the rear as the silence is again broken as the organ bursts forth its strains like the choir of angels over the Bethlehem plains. The Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass has begun!!

I am not sure if I have captured the scene well or not for you, dear Readers, but I hope that you can get a sense of what we are clearly lacking in many of today’s churches, especially here in the Charlotte area. I must sadly say that I have been in quieter train stations and airports than some of our local churches. I have long since given up trying to pray my Rosary before Mass since I can hardly hear myself praying due to the cacophony of noises from folks whom I can only assume have no true believe in the Real Presence of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Tabernacle.

I must be careful here for not crossing over into a venting of my frustration and not being judgmental, sinner that I am. But I do not think I am crossing a line when I point out facts and let you Readers draw upon your own experiences to come to your own conclusions; however, some of the loudest people that I have heard shouting their Sunday greetings across the pews to each other also have displayed blatant disregard for even the slightest acknowledging of the Presence of the Blessed Sacrament with a bow, let alone a genuflection.

I sincerely believe that this loss of ‘reverent silence’ has been one of the direct reasons for the lack of believe in the Real Presence by so many modern “Catholics”. I would also not disagree if one wanted to argue the converse, that the loss in Real Presence believe has lead to the loss of reverent silence; but without the silence, when can they even begin to ponder the great mystery of the Eucharistic Presence?

It is the silence that is needed to hear God’s voice whispering in the wind. It is the silence that is needed to “focus” our attention that the church is different building than a coffee shop or social hall … it is for the worship of our God, truly present!

Lastly, of all the elements of Catholic Identity that I hope to write about, this is one of the easiest to change, but it takes the courage of the priests to tell their flock that the church is a place of silence and worship, and to socialize before or after Mass in the “designated” areas. Believe me, nothing was a more social environment than the outside Peace Garden of San Leonardo. It was busy before Mass, and an absolute zoo after Mass, with the chatter of passion-filled Italians who had just had to be quiet for an hour… no easy task to keep us Italians quiet that long!

Please pray for a return of reverent silence... "Hear in silence, and for thy reverence good grace shall come to thee." (Ecclesiasticus 32:9)

Identity: Preaching the Truth Courageously

The history of Catholic identity always included courageous preaching of the Truth, most especially from the pulpit. Not wishy-washy, weak-kneed, and spineless homilies that only serve to enable the errors of their wayward flocks; on the contrary, they were passion-filled, fire and brimstone homilies that did not sugar coat the sinfulness of their flocks and the call for their conversion back to the Truth as given to God’s Church. But this was done out of love, not judgment.

These Catholic priests were not afraid to call things black and white, knowing that there is no grey in God’s truth. Many of the saints and missionaries were famous for their preaching and courage both within the Church and in pagan lands. It is not surprising that Saint Anthony, who was famous for his preaching, was blessed by God to have his vocal cords and tongue miraculously kept incorruptible.

With the Holy Father’s ongoing attempt to help the Church to recapture its Catholic Identity, so well documented on Fr. Z’s blog, it is wonderful to now see this courageous preaching returning again to the pulpit most specifically by those priests touched by the fullness of Catholic Tradition, and I think not so coincidently, by those who also offer the Mass in the Extraordinary Form.

If we what to help recapture this, we must encourage our priests when they preach the Truth. It is not easy, and in today’s world, the loud Cafeteria Catholics make their voice and money all too well heard, but we much stand up for the Truth. Tell them that we appreciate their honesty and candor of what is expected of us, and then listen and live by it! This is part of our mission!

Fr. Reid of St. Ann’s is just such a priest who needs to be recognized for his courage. At today’s Mass (in the Ordinary Form), he preached about the 40 year anniversary of His Holiness, Paul VI, encyclical Humanæ Vitæ. Fr. Reid, with all the love of a father for his children, laid out the hard Truth of the “intrinsic evil” of contraception and it incongruence with God’s plan for life. It was one of the most powerful homilies I have heard in a long time, and he is to be commended for preaching on a subject that most “pastors” fear to even think about it internally, let alone preach it from the pulpit.

But priests like Fr. Reid need our support and prayers, for the world in which we live is not very kind to those who preach and teach the Truth! The Evil One has a firm grip of the secular world and he uses it to try to discredit holy men like Pope Benedict XVI and Fr. Reid. One needs only to look at the coverage, if you could find it, of World Youth Day in Sydney where the media droned on incessantly about the ‘sexual abuse scandal’ while the Holy Father did and said many fantastic things.

And one doesn’t have to be the Pope to have the secular media have its “opinion”. In a recent opinion piece in the Charlotte Observer newspaper with regard to the return of the Extraordinary form of the Mass at St. Ann’s, the author who attended stated that the sermon “was a little muscular, a little Mel Gibson”. My return question is “As opposed to what…a limp sermon?” There have been too many “limp sermons” in the last 40 years, given so as to not hurt our sinful sensibilities! As the cliché says…“sometimes the Truth hurts!”

Please pray for holy priests and the courage for them to teach us the Truth!