Fr. Rob Johansen has posted an excellent homily he gave this weekend that forms the first in a series of three on the Mass. It covers what all together too many people still get very wrong about the Mass – what is it all about?

But here’s the thing: even if we never felt we got anything out of Mass, it would still be the most noble, holy, amazing, and important thing we could ever do – because the Mass isn’t about us. The Mass is about giving the perfect honor, glory and worship to God, through making present to us here, on this altar, the eternal self-offering and sacrifice of Christ. The Mass is about Jesus, not about us.

Read the rest. You won’t be sorry.

Fr. Tim Finigan of Hermeneutical fame has recently posted a set of slides for a presentation he gave on the Traditional Mass using Scribd. As much as the slides are not to be missed, notice how transparently new technology meshes with ancient practice and helps to enable even greater numbers of people to experience the wonders of the Mass anew. I must in particular recommend slides 23-29 for how beautifully they lay out the opportunities for active participation in the Traditional Mass. I can’t go without swiping one quote in particular, from slide 27 (emphasis mine):

From the Gospel to the Credo, consider the preaching of our Saviour; protest that you wish to live and die in the faith and obedience of his holy word and in union with the holy Catholic Church.

He could have chosen any of a plethora of words there, but protest is so loaded with meaning it cannot go without mention. It is, if you will, at the crux of active participation. We do not participate actively (or, in truth, actually as some would argue the translation) by merely watching or muttering a prayer from rote. Think about the word protest for a minute – what comes to mind (aside from the silly things)? People actively, passionately pleading for a cause and willing to go to any lengths to make their case heard. Is that not indeed precisely what is at the heart of our prayers to the Mass?

The story of the old lady and the unjust judge cannot help but be recalled here – our prayer is to be like that old lady. It is a very Catholic thing to point out that we are not called to passively watch salvation history play itself out but that instead God has deigned to involve each and every one of us in it in an active and contributory role every day. If that sounds like too much, protest that you need help and you’ll notice we’ve come full circle.

First, I want to second (c’mon, that was a well-timed pun!) everything he says about the news that Archbishop Raymond Burke has been appointed the head of the Apostolic Signatura. He has been a voice of reason and sanity in a world, and in a country, where those are in very short supply. He has also served to elevate the level of discourse on critical issues and refused to pander to those who would demand politically-correct wording to avoid otherwise necessary confrontation. While it is a loss to the Church in the United States, it is a gain to the Universal Church which must always be the greater good. I echo Dr. Peters’ hope that his position is filled both soon and well.

Second, he has written an article in Antiphon regarding a suggestion to alter the rules for the Communion fast. I can’t begin to agree enough with his recommendations. The current rule stipulates a one hour fast before receiving Communion. In explaining this rule to our RCIA class I was forced to point out that unless you’re eating in the car on the way to Mass it’s virtually impossible to violate this fast. I say virtually because I have, with my own eyes, seen someone drinking coffee during Mass who then went up to receive Communion. The rule is so simple to obey people think it doesn’t even exist anymore and have found ways to break even this rule. If you’re going to have a rule it must serve a purpose or it becomes legislation for its own sake which never does anyone any good. It will be interesting to see if this gains any traction.

NLM has a full translation of the Osservatore Romano interview with Msgr. Guido Marini, the Pope’s Master of Ceremonies. Do yourself a favor and read the whole thing – it’s densely packed with insights into from where the Pope is coming and to where he is going. As a minor history buff his accent on historical continuity as a proper hermeneutic and as a theological and liturgical key is both critical and intriguing. God has blessed us with this Pope, indeed.

As I sit here with all the computers unplugged (I’m using my wireless laptop, if that statement suddenly got you confused) thanks to a particularly nasty storm rolling overhead, I wanted to point out a very good post from Fr. Z that really has nothing to do with translations. The point I think we all need to be reminded of rather is that of “what is a norm?” (No, not that Norm.) He does a very good job pointing out that a norm is not just what we’re used to seeing, but rather the standard by which all others are measured. It’s a point that very often seems to be missed.

NLM has a very intriguing interview with Fr. George Rutler here. Anyone who knows NLM and Fr. Rutler should not be surprised that some very interesting questions and equally insightful answers are to be found.

Fr. Dwight Longenecker had an interesting discussion about the ad orientem posture with some of the students at his school after Mass. In part:

“You don’t feel slighted because I have turned my back to you? You sure I haven’t hurt your feelings?”

Laughter all around. “You’re not that good looking anyway Father.”

Russell Shaw has an excellent article at Inside Catholic on clericalism in the Church. The reason it’s good is that it doesn’t take just one side or the other but explores it and, as one could expect, finds that the truth is “in the middle”. One of my favorite quotes is this:

Not only that, one-dimensional emphasis in official Church circles on “lay ministry” is at the expense of time and energy that might better have been spent forming people for lay apostolate. Lately, the U.S. bishops’ conference has concentrated on setting norms for training people preparing to work for the Church as lay ecclesial ministers. Considering the important role these people often have in liturgy, catechesis, and other areas of Church life, their training certainly merits attention. But not at the cost of ignoring the formation of lay people for apostolate in the world. Yet that’s exactly what happens — and has been happening for a long time.

You see, that’s just the point – there is so much focus on the ad intra role of the laity they have no time or energy for what is, in reality, supposed to be their, if you will, “real” job. Yes, there is a very valid role for the laity working inside the Church. However, when people view having “done their duty” as having served as a lector or EMHC on Sunday you know something is desperately out of balance. And yes, I know people who think those extraordinary liturgical roles necessarily take precedence over non-liturgical apostolic work. I still, however, fail to understand how being an EMHC on Sunday and making Communion take two minutes less time can possibly be more valuable than proper spiritual formation of one’s self or one’s family or even evangelic work. It’s interesting that there is such an intersection between bad liturgical theology and bad ecclesiology, don’t you think?

In a post at NLM on the Papal Mass at the Washington Nationals Stadium, Jeffrey Tucker reminds us of something very important:

Of the half dozen or so people I’ve spoken with, the number one thing that people mostly mentioned about this Mass had nothing to do with the music. They speak of the miracle of the silence. They talk about the spiritual comportment of the tens of thousands of people, that you could have all those people gathered in a space and that there were moments that were so still and so silent that you could hear a pin drop. This was what moved people. This was the unforgettable thing that happened.

One priest noted that this silence could not have happened were it not for good formation that is taking place in the parishes. People knew why they were there, and it wasn’t to impress the Pope with their singing. It was to be in the presence of the successor of Peter and to experience the real presence of Christ. When you think of that, awe-struck silence seems like an excellent response.

As I once read somewhere, “silence is its own song”. In the age of the iPod where people seemingly can’t go five minutes without some sort of noise vibrating their ear drums the only chance many people have to experience any silence at all is in church; we do a disservice to them by forcing a constant cacophony of noise to pervade every split second of the time they’re there.

If you’re still not agreeing with me on the subject of silence, let me ask you this: if Jesus were suddenly to appear to you face to face in all His Glory, would your first response be to belt out On Eagle’s Wings? When we keep in mind that a face-to-face encounter with Jesus is the whole point of the Mass, it changes what we’re willing and wanting to surround it with. Silence is its own song.

…there is exactly one thing better than assisting at Mass. Yup, there’s one thing better. Wanna guess what it is? C’mon, you know you do.

It’s assisting at Mass after receiving the Sacrament of Confession. I mean right after. As in “walking out of the Confessional, performing your penance and praying until Mass begins without leaving your pew.” There is a qualitative difference, at least for poor sinful ol’ me, in my participation in praying with the Mass directly after Confession when I haven’t even had a chance to commit even a venial sin and assisting at Mass even only a couple of days later when I’ve been beaten down by the sludge of the world. The Mass is the Mass, yes, but assisting with a sparkly clean soul is just plain different. I can’t help it, sorry.

So I renew my plea to any priest (or potential priest) reading this post – please, do anything and everything in your power to offer confession before each and every Mass in your parish. Even if it means rearranging the Mass schedule to avoid, as I believe Pope Benedict called it “the parking lot syndrome” with Masses so close together there is neither time for people to get in and out of the parking lot easily nor for Confession. Even just ten minutes. Even if nobody comes. You can read, you can write, you can review your homily, you can just sit in the quiet and pray. Admit it my beloved priests, you’d love ten minutes of peace and quiet, if that’s the “down” side of offering Confession before every Mass. I simply cannot recommend this enough.