Ubi Petrus

Just as we’ve all been hearing about how Pope Benedict has been slowing down the process for beatification and canonization, VIS tells us:

“This evening in the cathedral of Coimbra, Portugal, Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins C.M.F., president of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, presided at a Mass marking the third anniversary of the death of Sister Lucia dos Santos. Following the ceremony he announced that the Holy Father Benedict XVI, benevolently accepting a request presented by Bishop Albino Mamede Cleto of Coimbra and shared by many bishops and faithful throughout the world, has waived the five-year waiting period established by canonical norms (art. 9 of “Normae servandae”) and granted that, just three years after the death of Sister Lucia (known to the world as one of the three seers of Fatima), the diocesan stage of the cause for her beatification may begin”.

I have to admit, I’m not exactly upset over this at all. I do think the normal five-year waiting period is a very good idea, but there are cases where it may not be necessary. Further, it’s not like we’ll be going from this opening to canonization in a short time – just the diocesan stage can take years. Fatima, I think, still has a particular role to play in the coming years. Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!

Zoiks, yes, I’ve been as scarce as hens’ teeth lately. Reasons? Yes. Good reasons? Debatable. Let’s just say there’s a reason I know Keith will make a good priest someday – if he can prod even me to action, imagine what he’ll do with an entire parish!

Fr. Daren Zehnle at Servant and Steward has tagged me with the Middle Name Meme. If both a priest and a seminarian want my answers, I guess I don’t have a choice but to answer. Who said Catholic Guilt was a thing of the past? (C’mon folks, that was a joke!)

The rules are fairly simple:

1. You have to post the rules before you give your answers.
2. You must list one fact about yourself beginning with each letter of your middle name.(If you don’t have a middle name, use your maiden name or your mother’s maiden name).
3. At the end of your blog post, you need to tag one person for each letter of your middle name.

My middle name is Peter. Yes, that means I go by my middle name not my first name. Heard about it at the beginning of every single year in school – I even tried to avoid it in college by not correcting any of the professors, until I started to get too busy/lazy/tired and signed all my papers with my middle name. As they would put it, “I am who I am”. But enough delaying.

P – I was convinced for a long time I would become a Priest. The Diocese was smart enough to make me slow down a lot, so it never happened. If someone says “Deacon” my answer is now “maybe, someday”. I’m no rushing headlong this time.
e – I have the habit of being positively effusive in praise and deference when talking or writing to any clergy. Probably to the point that they question whether I’m serious or just delirious.
t – I cringe whenever I hear someone describe the altar as a table. Sorry, they’re just … not … the … same. This is a meme though, so we haven’t the space for a full theological discussion. Moving on…
e – I came this // close to buying the Enchiridion Symbolorum even though I can’t read anywhere near enough Latin to have it be of much use. Partly because it would be an impetus to get moving on my Latin studies. And partly, sadly, just to have it.
r – I really, really want to start praying the Rosary every day. I’ve wanted to do it for a long time, but I’ve never been organized enough to consistently carve twenty minutes out of my day and I constantly find myself at the end of the day having missed another opportunity. For good or bad, I consider it a black mark on my prayer life.

Since this meme has been around for a while, and just about everyone I know that might read this blog that has one of their own has answered the meme, consider yourself tagged. Keith, I’ll expect your answers in the combox since you forced me to do this. In between theology and philosophy courses, of course.

I just wanted to post a couple of things that might be of interest to any Catholics living in New Hampshire; since I had to go looking for them, you might not know about them. If you do, well, thanks for adding to my meager hit counts anyway – your charity is not unnoticed.

First, the Diocese has put together a list of resources for Lent here. Included is a pointer to the Bishop’s Lenten Message. I particularly liked this graph:

Lent is also an Equalizer. It reminds us that no matter our station or status in life, we are all the same, namely, the bearer of foibles and failings as well as gifts and virtues. Lent calls attention to our failings. Lent is an Equalizer. As we all are imperfect, none of us is exempt from choosing to improve our effort to be Christ like in our service of God and one another.

That is truly one of the great wonders (and indeed great difficulties for some) of the Church – being “the Church of here comes everybody” as is said and all receiving the same sacraments in the same way has, or at least should have, a great equalizing effect. When we realize we’re not all that far from the executive in the pew next to us, just maybe we’ll realize we’re also not that far from the homeless person on the streets.

There is also a new feature from the Diocesan site – a periodic email newsletter filled with various resources. The current one is up at the link – I’d like to hope that most families will sign up so they can be sure to not be left out or caught by surprise by anything. The more ways we can get information to people the better!

Finally, via Corpus et Sanguis, (and yeah, I’m way late on this) there is an online petition to ask for the Extraordinary Form of the Latin Rite to be held in the Cathedral in Manchester. For many of us this would be significantly more accessible than trips to either Nashua or Portsmouth. I certainly expect, or at least I hope, that there are more than the current 39 of you out there who have signed the petition who would like to see this happen.

I’ve been meme’d by Argent. It’s the making-the-rounds book meme. Da rulz:

1. Pick up the nearest book ( of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people.

The nearest book is relative to exactly where I’m sitting when I read my notice of memeing (somehow I’m sure that’s not properly conjugated). Six inches to the left and it’s the 1962 Daily Missal; in the middle it’s The Mass of the Early Christians; six inches to the right and it’s a tie between the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church and The Ratzinger Report. Yeah, I ran out of space on my bookshelf – I knew I should have made it bigger. Since I’m the indecisive type, here they are, in order:

1962 Daily Missal:

Tota pulchra es, Maria. Et macula originalis non est in te. Tu gloria Jerusalem.
Thou art all fair, O Mary. And the original stain is not in thee. Thou art the glory of Jerusalem.

The Mass of the Early Christians (Chapter 15: Sts. Albercius and Pectorius):

Albercius’ original burial marker now stands in the Lateran Museum in Rome.

The Latin inscription of Pectorius was unearthed in Autun, France. Its age is uncertain, but its style corresponds to that of Abercius, using similarly cryptic language to describe the Eucharist.

Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

433. Why is the Christian moral life indispensable for the proclamation of the Gospel?

Because their lives are conformed to the Lord Jesus, Christians draw others to faith in the true God, build up the Church, inform the world with the spirit of the Gospel, and hasten the coming of the Kingdom of God.

The Ratzinger Report:

But he immediately adds, “In order to explain the rapid and almost total abandonment of the ancient, common liturgical language, we must also take into account a fundamental cultural change in Western public education. Even in the early sixties when I was a professor, it was possible to read a Latin text to young people coming straight from German secondary schools. Nowadays this is no longer possible.”

Yup, surrounded by books. It’s a good thing.

For all those of us who lament the seeming dearth of vocations (or, more accurately, the seeming dearth of accepted vocations) to the priesthood, Pope Benedict has something to say. If you are a parent and have one or more sons still single, no matter how young, it is your duty and privilege to open their eyes to the possibility, the grace, the wonder that is the priesthood. After Vespers at Rome’s Major Pontifical Seminary on the occasion of the feast of its patron, Our Lady of Trust, the Holy Father talked to the seminarians and then turned also to their parents:

The Pope then addressed the parents of the future priests, saying “you are probably the most surprised of all about what has happened and is happening to your children. You had perhaps imagined for them a mission different from the one for which they are now preparing. … Let us look to Mary. The Gospel helps us to understand that she too asked herself many question about her Son Jesus, and reflected on Him for a long time.

“It is inevitable that the vocation of children in some way also becomes the vocation of the parents”, he added. “You have found yourselves participating in your sons’ marvellous adventure. Indeed, although it may appear that a priest’s life does not attract the interest of the majority of people, in reality it is the most interesting of adventures and the most necessary for the world: the adventure of demonstrating and realising the fullness of life to which everyone aspires. It is a very demanding adventure and could not be otherwise because a priest is called to imitate Jesus”. (Full story via VIS.)

You can absolutely feel his joy at being a priest, and indeed his joy at being with the seminarians. It is joy this world lacks the most, and the one true source of joy is Him who saved us – this, above all else, seems to be an overriding theme of this Pontificate. What joy it is to come to know the Lord, and what joy it is to see your own son a vehicle to bring Him to us in the form of bread and wine, His Body and Blood given to save us all. “[A] priest is called to imitate Jesus.” What better way to live?

…when, on the drive to school in the morning you hear the following conversation between your two kids:

“Wow, those people have grass!”
“What’s grass?”
“See that green stuff over there?”
“Ooohhhh…”

And yes, it snowed again today.

of why the unarmed should not get into a battle of wits. While the fireworks can be pretty, it’s usually a pretty bad end for the wick. Yeah, I have commentary, but why ruin the work of a master?

Say what, you say? Let’s just put it this way: Phil’s a smart cookie. If everyone in blogdom would read this post and take it as advice it’d be a monumental step forward. Go. Read.

Beg pardon the interruption of the silence. We just learned this week that one of the teachers at my kids’ school lost her daughter some time ago to Cystic Fibrosis. First a parental suicide, now this. It has been a strange year already and it’s just begun. We’re working our way through it, so posting should resume shortly.

Oh, and this weekend I’m on tap to talk to our RCIA candidates about confession. And we have a birthday party this weekend to get ready for. While I enjoy being busy, this is verging on the ridiculous.

For the repose of the soul of the young lady we pray:
Requiescat in pace, et lux aeterna dona is, Domine.
We pray also, Lord, for her family: surround them with your Love and comfort them in this time of sadness. You who broke down the walls of death and snapped the chains of sin – bring this child Home and grant peace to her family.
Mother Mary, you watched your Son die on the cross and through faith saw His Resurrection: comfort them and all who are affected, carry the young lady in your Maternal arms to your Son, and protect her family in your mantle.