Fact: Solemn High Mass in Extraordinary Form on August 15 in Clemmons, NC

Dear Readers, please see this post over at Charlie's blog where he has learned of a Solemn High Mass to be offered on the Feast of the Assumption B.V.M. at noon in Clemmons, NC at Holy Family Church.

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.)

Fact: Late Breaking News on Aug. 2 Mass at St. Ann's

I doubt that my blog has the readership to reach the right audience, especially give the short notice, but it was announced on Sunday, that Father Reid will be leaving Thursday, July 31 for a mission trip to Jamaica. As a result, the regular 8.00am Mass in the Extraordinary Form that he offers will instead be offered in the Ordinary form on August 2 by a visiting priest, Father Henning.

This unfortunately was not announced at Saturday's Extraordinary form of the Mass so there may be some who regularly assist at that Mass who will be surprised next Saturday. If you know anyone who regularly attends, or might attend on First Saturdays, please let them know of this news.

The Extraordinary form will return on the following Saturday, August 9, at 8.00am, but this will be the last Saturday morning Mass when the Extraordinary Form will then be moved to Wednesdays, at 6.00pm as discussed here in an earlier post.

Please pray for more priests to be trained in the Extraordinary form so that a vacation, pilgrimage, or mission trip of one priest will not cause Masses in the Extraordinary form to be cancelled or changed to the Ordinary form.

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)

Grapevine: TLM to be offered at Charlotte Cathedral?

As with all the "Grapevine" posts, there is nothing formal or official with which to link or reference directly, but there are stong currents from different sources that lead some to believe that in the not too distant future, the Mass in the Extraordinary Form may be offered at the Charlotte Cathedral on a regular basis.

Giving the rumor some objective creedence is that fact that Father Roux, the new Rector of the Cathedral, was most recently a Priest-in-Residence at St. Ann's parish, and was a supporter of Fr. Reid's efforts in offering the TLM there at St. Ann's. In addition, Fr. Roux himself offered the Mass in the Extraordianary Form on this last weekend at St. Ann's.

Couple this with the changes seen by Charlie in the orientation going on at the Cathedral since his arrival, one can easily see how this could be a definate possibility in the future. The key as always, dear Readers, is to be patient, for little by little things are changing!! If anyone has information that could confirm or deny this posting, please let me know.

Please pray for patience... and for more holy priests and vocations!

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)