Ubi Petrus

According to Shawn Tribe at NLM, those of us who love liturgy enough to want to see it done correctly are not, in fact, completely nuts as has been suggested to me before. In his The Nature and Social Implications of the Liturgical Act he lays out a well-reasoned explication of the importance of proper liturgy to the application of Christian teaching in all its phases. Even if you know all the arguments, it would be good to read his post if for no other reason than to refresh yourself again. Some selected highlights:

What must be first noted about this way of thinking is that found within it is a fundamental misperception of the substantial nature of the Mass. The Mass is not first and foremost a tool for Eucharistic piety or adoration. Eucharistic piety is a noble thing of course, and one of the most solemn moments of the Mass finds us adoring the Body and Blood of Christ, but that is not the primary end of the liturgical act. Neither is the Mass primarily a vehicle for the reception of the Eucharist — though frequent and worthy reception of the Eucharist brings with it many important graces of course. The Mass is not even primarily about our own sanctification. To comprehend the essential nature of the Christian liturgy bears minding the nature of the Jewish Temple liturgies and their sacrificial offerings and how that imperfectly foreshadowed the Christian liturgy and Sacrifice of Christ. The Christian liturgy is first and foremost an act of rendering due worship to God the Father through the perpetuated sacrifice and offering of God the Son. It is this sacrificial nature of the liturgy and the worship of God the Father that particularly drives the liturgical act. It is important that we have this proper understanding of the primary end of the Mass for all else flows from this. This is also why we should not make Eucharistic piety to be the be-all and end-all of the liturgy. In point of fact, worship and sacrifice are the be-all and end-all of the liturgy.
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It is not legalistic to be concerned with such matters. Legalism is ultimately narcissistic in nature because it is concerned with rules or traditions for their own sake. But the sort of concern we are speaking of is precisely rooted in a consideration and awareness of the relationship of liturgical form to spiritual and theological realities. It is therefore precisely the opposite of legalism.
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If we wish, for example, to address attitudes that are contrary to the Gospel of Life, we need to consider our parishes and particularly the liturgy that occurs within them. How are they forming people? Are they affecting deep personal relationships with God? Those liturgies are the primary contact of most of the faithful with both God and the Church and they both dispose people and form them in particular ways. If there is a lack there, this will certainly have a domino effect that will extend to other areas, including social matters. By contrast, right worship — being tied with right belief — is a fount from which right Christian action flows. Ultimately we are speaking about personal conversion to God’s will and conversion lends itself to proper Christian action. (It is worth considering that the saints of the Church were amongst the greatest of those who worked to address social problems and they were also people of profound prayer who adored God through the liturgy and the sacraments. The latter nourished the former.)

This is for all you catechists out there, and for all you would-be catechists, and you should-be catechists. In other words, it’s something for everyone who’s doing what they should do – particularly since catechesis is a critical component of evangelization. The good Adam Janke has put in tireless hours creating and updating Catechetics Online, a repository of just about anything a catechist who’s not trying to teach doctoral-level classes would need. And probably several things someone teaching future-PhDs would need as well. There is even a forum where you can yuck it up with yours truly. Now that has to interest everyone!

Fr. V has a wonderful post that I think expands even beyond the point he originally was trying to make. In it, he extrapolates on one of the ways the sins of a father are visited on his sons – in this case, inadvertent contact with pornography. The truth of the post though is much larger than that. What we do in any and every way affects our children and we as parents always have a singular choice – do we help lead them to salvation or do we help lead them down the roads of perdition.

So the next time you’re tempted to cut a corner somehow, to take a “shortcut” in the spiritual life, remember that it’s not just God who’s watching you, but your sons and daughters as well. It’s your example they’ll follow; it’s your choice which direction you point them, at all times.

Cross-posted at Catholic Dads.

Fr. V. echoes my thoughts on the matter of random complaining:

I once had a spiritual director, an Opus Dei priest, who said after I had grumbled about my bishop, “Never speak ill of your bishop.” He was absolute. I don’t know if I am that absolute. Some bishops need to be spoken ill of at least in certain situations. But the vast majority of the Church’s grumbling is simply counter productive. Are we not family? Should we not be as “functional” as possible?

The thing is, the grumbling can bring a community down. The constant tearing down of a pastor, a bishop, or even a pope can only damage us. Look what happened to Saint John of the Cross (notice the saint part) whose community grumbled against him and treated him most sorely. A room full of people each stating one thing that they don’t like about someone up on the chain can leave the whole room with the impression that everyone is in agreement that they do not like him. All of a sudden a bad humor spreads and bad humors are generally hard to put out.

I have to wonder just how many people have looked into coming Home to the Church and were scared away when they found just how crotchety some of us can be at times. Yes, there are priests and bishops who do things which need to be highlighted so that, by unleashing “the power of the blog” it may be possible to set things aright. Very often the virtue of Charity is misunderstood in both directions, and likely quite as often even those who wish to exercise Charity mistake how to do so. The Lord knows I certainly have done so. Advent certainly seems a good time to reflect on how we can better exercise true Charity.

EWTN will be broadcasting the Solemn High Rorate Caeli Mass according to the 1962 Missale Romanum. This surely will be something you don’t want to miss. Me, I’m using it as both edification and education. And to think, this never would have happened only a few short months ago. Viva il Papa!

Fr. Daren Zehnle has hit me with the book meme. I’d have replied earlier, but this has been the week from Gehenna already. Honest. I topped it off by completely messing up the window manager settings on my workstation yesterday. If you don’t know what that means, count your blessings. Thanks to commenter Keith for kicking me into gear. The meme:

One book that changed your life:
If it has to be a book, I would have to say Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body. It saddens me to think of all the years I wasted not really knowing what marriage and sexuality are all about. The word “love” will never mean the same thing to me.
If I can get away with an encyclical, hands down it’s Evangelium vitae. For the first time in my life I was met head-on with argumentation that I simply couldn’t refute and it opened my eyes to the great body of Magisterial teachings. It also began my cycle of voracious reading of anything written by a Pope, John Paul II or other.

One book that you’ve read more than once:
This is tough. I tend not to go back to books very often, which is unlike most bookworms I know. The only one I know I’ve read multiple times is Eon by Greg Bear. I read this book a few times as a kid – it’s a scifi book about a cold war over a near-earth asteroid involving alternate universes and all sorts of fun things like that. It made me think about honeycomb theory at a very early age.

One book you’d want on a desert island:
I read somewhere that you can’t say the Bible here. So…other than that, I’d have to say Thomas Aquinas’ Summa theologica. I’ve only ever used it as a reference so reading it cover-to-cover could prove quite interesting.

One book that made you laugh:
This would have to be Umpire Strikes Back by Ron Luciano. It’s a collection of stories (true he says, but we’ll never know) from his years as a Major League umpire. If you love baseball you simply can’t read this and not shake your head chuckling at least twenty times.

One book that made you cry:
Okay, call me pathetic. Lord of the Flies. I have a genuine hatred of seeing people do stupid things, and I just plain can’t stand to see people suffer.

One book that you wish had been written:
Other than “How to win the lottery” perhaps it would be “How to talk to kids without sounding like an idiot”. Yeah, I can spout theology to adults all day, but get me to talk to kids and I turn into a babbling idiot. That includes my own two some would say.

One book that you wish had never been written:
Too many to list. In my earlier years it would be Oliver Twist (I mean really – who needs to spend five pages walking from one side of the street to the other?). Now…well, shoot, there are so many heresies out there all with their own book it’s hard to name just one. I’d say I’m somewhere between Hitler’s Mein Kampf and Marx’s Communist Manifesto. Keep either one from getting out and who knows how many million lives may have been saved.

One book you’re currently reading:
Several. I’m currently working on Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma by Dr. Ludwig Ott, but my “pleasure” book is A History of Apologetics by Avery Cardinal Dulles. I find I rarely read books not about something to do with the Catholic faith – I have too many pre-conversion years to make up for.

One book you’ve been meaning to read:
I’m going to skip by the obvious ones. My grandmother (nearly in tears, as I recall) gave me a copy of The Imitation of Christ by Thomas A Kempis which I still have not finished. I will consider it a bit of a black mark on my record until I finish that book.

Tags: Anyone daring enough to try it. This is harder than it looks.

Fr. Tim Finigan has a very cogent post regarding the interdependencies between properly working families and the priesthood. Just as any good behavior begins at home, so too is proper formation at home critical to the ability for a child to discern a vocation to the priesthood or religious life and the willingness to be open to that call. And dads, he has a special note in there for you – this is a time when it’s very important for the dad to be the dad and not just leave the “churchy” things to the mother. Please, do read it. After you’ve read it, maybe even give a call to the rectory and invite your priest over for dinner some night. Somehow I think he will be more concerned with how the inside of our souls are kept than the inside of our house, so don’t be shy.

Lord, send us holy priests! Strengthen our families that we may help our children!

I know I should have had this post up earlier today, but this has just been one of those days. If nothing else, it’s not that late yet on the West Coast. That said, I wanted to make sure I didn’t rush this any more than necessary since I’m also taking this opportunity to note that Saint Ambrose is as of now officially the patron Saint of this blog. I’m sure it could be said that his assistance could have been useful a long time ago. But enough about this blog.

Saint Ambrose is certainly most well-known as the Bishop who most helped to convert Saint Augustine, following all the way to his baptism by Ambrose. Perhaps my favorite quote from Augustine about Ambrose is how he mentions his astonishment that Ambrose would read the Scriptures without moving his lips. To us it seems strange, but to him a revelation. Ambrose, however, was far more than just a bookworm.

His father having died while he was young, Ambrose’s mother returned to Rome to raise her family. The young Ambrose, named after his father, learned Greek and became a notable poet and orator. He was named Assessor by the praetorian prefect Anicius Probus and then the emperor Valentian made him governor of Liguria and Aemilia. For this post he took up residence in Milan.

It was during this time that the Arian bishop of Milan, Auxentius, died. As episcopal appointments were directed by popular acclaim at this point in history there was much strife between the Arian and Catholic parties. When Ambrose went to the church to plead for calm and for the choice to be made in a spirit of peace without tumult a voice cried out ‘Ambrose, bishop!’ The cry was quickly echoed through the assembly, stunning Ambrose who was still only a catechumen. The decision was relayed to the emperor with Ambrose pleading to be excused; Valentian considered it a great honor that his appointed governor should be seen fit for episcopal office and ordered that the election take place. Ambrose went so far as to attempt to hide in the house of a senator, but when word arrived of the emperor’s decision Ambrose was handed over and received episcopal consecration a week later – today, December 7, 374. We celebrate thus, not his birth into Heaven but his ordination to the episcopacy.

Ambrose set himself to deep study, feeling himself ignorant of theology. He was known for always being available to anyone who needed him and for his strict simplicity. Ambrose had affection for the vocation of consecrated virgins and, at the request of his sister St. Marcellina he collected his sermons on this subject thereby making a famous treatise. So effective were his sermons that mothers tried to keep their daughters away – so effective in fact he was charged with attempting to depopulate the empire. His response? Wars, not maidens, are the destroyers of the human race.

The statesman Symmachus attempted to have the altar of the ancient goddess of Victory re-established in the senate-house. In his request to Valentian he made suggestions which would seem eerily similar to those we hear today, including: “What does it matter the way in which each seeks for truth? Ther emust be more than one road to the great mystery.” Wikipedia describes Ambrose’s response thus:

To this petition Ambrose replied in a letter to Valentinian, arguing that the devoted worshipers of idols had often been forsaken by their deities; that the native valour of the Roman soldiers had gained their victories, and not the pretended influence of pagan priests; that these idolatrous worshipers requested for themselves what they refused to Christians; that voluntary was more honourable than constrained virginity; that as the Christian ministers declined to receive temporal emoluments, they should also be denied to pagan priests; that it was absurd to suppose that God would inflict a famine upon the empire for neglecting to support a religious system contrary to His will as revealed in the Holy Scriptures; that the whole process of nature encouraged innovations, and that all nations had permitted them even in religion; that heathen sacrifices were offensive to Christians; and that it was the duty of a Christian prince to suppress pagan ceremonies.

In further conflicts with the Arian Empress Justina Ambrose wielded the office of Bishop with both great bravado and great effect. When ordered to hand over churches for Arian worship he refused, and after preaching on Palm Sunday against handing over churches the people barricaded themselves in the basilica with their pastor as troops approached, intending to starve them out. As they waited, Ambrose taught the people Psalms and hymns of his own hand. Finally, when asked to appoint lay judges to decide his case Ambrose reminded Valentian that laymen could not judge bishops or make ecclesiastical laws. It was at this time he ascended his cathedra and in explaining the situation uttered the memorable phrase, “the emperor is in the Church, not over it.”

In these always exciting times, Ambrose was never too long to find conflict coming his way. There was a case where he defended a bishop from having to pay restitution to rebuild a Jewish temple which had been torn down, suggesting that a bishop should never be constrained to pay for the erection of a temple to be used for false worship. Modern sensibilities may find this rather unsettling, but times then were far more polemical than they are now or rather than we would like to think they are now.

After a brutal massacre at the order of the emperor Theodosius Ambrose declared him excommunicated until he properly repented and made proper penance. Even though the massacre was well-known at the time it is related that Theodosius removed every sign of royalty and publicly begged forgiveness. In this we see an interesting foreshadowing of St. Thomas Beckett and Henry II, although this did not end in further bloodshed.

We read of his last days:

When he fell sick he foretold his death, but said he should live till Easter. On the day of his death he lay with his hands extended in the form of a cross for several hours, moving his lips in constant prayer. St. Honoratus of Vercelli was there, resting in another room, when he seemed to hear a voice crying three times to him, ‘Arise Make haste! He is going’. He went down and gave him the Body of the Lord, and soon after St. Ambrose was dead. It was Good Friday, April 4, 397, and he was about fifty-seven years old. He was buried on Easter day, and his relics rest under the high altar of the basilica, where they were buried in 835.

St. Ambrose was declared a Doctor of the Church in 1298 by Pope Boniface VIII, making him one of the four Great Doctors of the Western Church. He is the patron saint of, inter alia, learning, students, schoolchildren and Milan, Italy. He is also the patron saint of bees and beekeepers owing to his appellation of “The Honey Tongued Doctor”. There is indeed much the modern Church can learn from this ancient Father.

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Most of the above information is taken from Butler’s Lives of the Saints, except where otherwise noted. I have also spliced in other information which does not appear in Butler’s work.

I’m not sure whether I’m more excited or nervous at this announcement, so I’ll start with intrigued. According to CNA, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith will next week release a document on evangelization and catechesis. As a catechist for our RCIA program I think I can use all the help I can get.

The cynic in me wonders just how much play this will get, however, since Dominus Iesus seems to be by-and-large an unknown document. That not withstanding, however, the optimist in me thinks that if properly written without gaping holes the reinforcement of Dominus Iesus with a subsequent document might finally spur some people on. For my part, I’ll work for the latter and do what I can to prevent the former. I await in hopeful anticipation any document whose goal is “to bring back the centrality of Jesus to the programs aimed at transmitting the faith to future generations”. If nothing else, it gives me good reason to sit down and read Dominus Iesus from end to end over the next week. Care to join me?

Vatican City, Dec 6, 2007 / 05:17 pm (CNA).- The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), headed by Cardinal William Joseph Levada, is about to release an important document on evangelization and catechesis, Vatican sources told CNA this week.

According to the Vatican sources, the document, which could be made public this Advent, “can be regarded as an application of the principles of the document “Dominus Iesus” to the way evangelization is transmitted and catechesis is taught within the Catholic Church.”

In “Dominus Iesus” the CDF, then under the leadership of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, clearly established the differences between the Catholic Church and other religions including other Christian denominations. “Dominus Iesus” states that only the Catholic Church possesses the fullness of the Christian faith.

According to sources consulted by CNA, the new document on evangelization will stress the need to make the person of Jesus Christ, in his role as God incarnated to bring the full revelation of God’s plans through the Catholic Church, the corner stone and center of every program of evangelization and catechesis.

The intention of the document, according to the source, is “to bring back the centrality of Jesus to the programs aimed at transmitting the faith to future generations, since several of these programs are centered on feelings or confused ideas about the teachings of the Church on the nature of Jesus.”