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)

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)