Apparantly, tomorrow is Aaron's dies natali:
"In monte Hor depositio sancti Aaron, primi ex ordine Levitico Sacerdotis."
On Mount Horeb, burial of holy Aaron, the first ordained Levitical Priest.
2009-06-30
2009-06-28
New Encyclical Soon
The blogosphere had several mentions today of Pope Benedict XVI's third encyclical, Caritas in veritate, which is expected to be released this week.
I've just read Benedict's homily for first vespers of Peter and Paul at La Buhardilla, and it read to me as though this homily may be a sort of introduction to, or preparation for, the encyclical. Here is my translation of select paragraphs of the homily:
The same thought of the necessity of our renovation as a human person, Paul subsequently illustrated in two paragraphs of the Letter to the Ephesians, on which we will now briefly reflect. In the fourth chapter of the Letter, the apostle says that with Christ we have reached adulthood, a mature humanity. We cannot remain "children, tossed back and forth and carried about with every wind of doctrine" (4:14). Paul wants Christians to have a "responsible" faith, an "adult" faith. The word "adult faith" in the last decades has become a diffuse slogan. It is often in the sense of the attitude of one who does not listen to the Church and its pastors, but has autonomously chosen what they want to believe and not believe--that is to say, a faith "by oneself". This is interpreted as "valiance", expressing oneself against the Magisterium of the Church. In reality, this is not necessarily valiance, because you can always be secure in public applause. In contrast valiance is necessary to join the faith of the Church, including if this contradicts the "scheme" of the contemporary world. It is this "non-conformism" of the faith that Paul calls an "adult faith". Scores change as infants, running after the winds and the currents of the time. Thus part of the adult faith, for example, is commitment to the inviolability of human life from the first moment of conception, opposition to this radical form of the principle of violence, precisely in defence of the more vulnerable human creatures. Part of the adult faith is to recognize that marriage between one man and one woman for all their life was ordained by the Creator, and newly re-established by Christ. Adult faith is not transported one place and another by any current. It objects to the winds of fashion. It knows that these winds are not the murmur of the Holy Spirit; it knows that the Spirit of God is expressed and is manifested in communion with Jesus Christ. But Paul does not stop with negation, but leads us to a grand "yes". He describes mature faith in a positive way with the expression: "rather, speaking the truth in love" (cf Eph 4:15). The new mode of thought, that gives us the faith, is develop first to truth. The power of evil is the lie. The power of the faith, the power of God, is the truth. The truth about the world and about ourselves becomes visible when we look at God. And God is visible to us in the face of Jesus Christ. Looking to Christ we recognize one thing more: truth and charity are inseparable. In God, both are one thing: this is precisely the essence of God. For this reason, for Christians truth and charity go in unity. Charity is the test of truth. Always we have to be measured according to this criterion, that the truth is transformed into charity and we are made true.
Another important thought appears in the verse of St Paul. The apostle says to us that, acting according to the truth in charity, contributes to making all--the universe--grow toward Christ. Paul, on the basis of his faith, is not interested only in our personal rectitude or in the increase of the Church. He is interested in the universe: "ta panta". The final end of the work of Christ is the universe--the transformation of the universe, of all the human world, of the entire creation. Who together with Christ serves truth in charity, contributes to the true progress of the world. Yes, it is completely clear that Paul knew the idea of progress. Christ, his life, suffering and resurrection, has been the true giant leap of progress for humanity, for the world. Now, in change, the universe has to grow towards Him. Where the presence of Christ is augmented, here is the true progress of the world. Here man is new and thus is transformed a new world.
Let us pray to the Lord, that he will help us recognize something of the enormity of his love. Pray that his love and his truth touch our heart. Ask that Christ live in our hearts and make us new men, who act according to the truth in charity. Amen.
I've just read Benedict's homily for first vespers of Peter and Paul at La Buhardilla, and it read to me as though this homily may be a sort of introduction to, or preparation for, the encyclical. Here is my translation of select paragraphs of the homily:
The same thought of the necessity of our renovation as a human person, Paul subsequently illustrated in two paragraphs of the Letter to the Ephesians, on which we will now briefly reflect. In the fourth chapter of the Letter, the apostle says that with Christ we have reached adulthood, a mature humanity. We cannot remain "children, tossed back and forth and carried about with every wind of doctrine" (4:14). Paul wants Christians to have a "responsible" faith, an "adult" faith. The word "adult faith" in the last decades has become a diffuse slogan. It is often in the sense of the attitude of one who does not listen to the Church and its pastors, but has autonomously chosen what they want to believe and not believe--that is to say, a faith "by oneself". This is interpreted as "valiance", expressing oneself against the Magisterium of the Church. In reality, this is not necessarily valiance, because you can always be secure in public applause. In contrast valiance is necessary to join the faith of the Church, including if this contradicts the "scheme" of the contemporary world. It is this "non-conformism" of the faith that Paul calls an "adult faith". Scores change as infants, running after the winds and the currents of the time. Thus part of the adult faith, for example, is commitment to the inviolability of human life from the first moment of conception, opposition to this radical form of the principle of violence, precisely in defence of the more vulnerable human creatures. Part of the adult faith is to recognize that marriage between one man and one woman for all their life was ordained by the Creator, and newly re-established by Christ. Adult faith is not transported one place and another by any current. It objects to the winds of fashion. It knows that these winds are not the murmur of the Holy Spirit; it knows that the Spirit of God is expressed and is manifested in communion with Jesus Christ. But Paul does not stop with negation, but leads us to a grand "yes". He describes mature faith in a positive way with the expression: "rather, speaking the truth in love" (cf Eph 4:15). The new mode of thought, that gives us the faith, is develop first to truth. The power of evil is the lie. The power of the faith, the power of God, is the truth. The truth about the world and about ourselves becomes visible when we look at God. And God is visible to us in the face of Jesus Christ. Looking to Christ we recognize one thing more: truth and charity are inseparable. In God, both are one thing: this is precisely the essence of God. For this reason, for Christians truth and charity go in unity. Charity is the test of truth. Always we have to be measured according to this criterion, that the truth is transformed into charity and we are made true.
Another important thought appears in the verse of St Paul. The apostle says to us that, acting according to the truth in charity, contributes to making all--the universe--grow toward Christ. Paul, on the basis of his faith, is not interested only in our personal rectitude or in the increase of the Church. He is interested in the universe: "ta panta". The final end of the work of Christ is the universe--the transformation of the universe, of all the human world, of the entire creation. Who together with Christ serves truth in charity, contributes to the true progress of the world. Yes, it is completely clear that Paul knew the idea of progress. Christ, his life, suffering and resurrection, has been the true giant leap of progress for humanity, for the world. Now, in change, the universe has to grow towards Him. Where the presence of Christ is augmented, here is the true progress of the world. Here man is new and thus is transformed a new world.
Let us pray to the Lord, that he will help us recognize something of the enormity of his love. Pray that his love and his truth touch our heart. Ask that Christ live in our hearts and make us new men, who act according to the truth in charity. Amen.
2009-06-24
The Birthday of St. John the Baptist
Today is John the Baptist's birthday. In the EF, yesterday was the vigil of this feast. I don't see why the OF did away with vigils. They're very nice, extend the feast, and during tempus per annum you get a bit of penance because their colour is purple.
The EF uses the psalms from the common of confessor bishops for Matins, which I find odd. We have a common of martyrs, so why not use those? I guess maybe since this isn't the feast of his martyrdom, that aspect of him isn't emphasized.
I always found it interesting that his birthday isn't tomorrow. It ought to be, to sync up perfectly with Jesus' birthday. One of my friends said an Eastern Catholic priest told her it's because since he is only human, and thus imperfect, that's why his feast is a day off.
For you music lovers, Fr Z says that today's vespers hymn, Ut queant laxis resonare fibris, is the original source for do-re-mi. Interesting, eh?
The EF uses the psalms from the common of confessor bishops for Matins, which I find odd. We have a common of martyrs, so why not use those? I guess maybe since this isn't the feast of his martyrdom, that aspect of him isn't emphasized.
I always found it interesting that his birthday isn't tomorrow. It ought to be, to sync up perfectly with Jesus' birthday. One of my friends said an Eastern Catholic priest told her it's because since he is only human, and thus imperfect, that's why his feast is a day off.
For you music lovers, Fr Z says that today's vespers hymn, Ut queant laxis resonare fibris, is the original source for do-re-mi. Interesting, eh?
Posts on Confession
Fr Ray Blake has a couple of very good posts on confession, if you haven't read them yet.
2009-06-22
Accepted
The vocations director called just a little bit ago, and told me the Seminary accepted me in. Please pray for me that I'll persevere, because I am terrified.
On microphones
This is taken from Addleshaw and Etchells' "The Architectural Setting of Anglican Worship" (1948):
It is sometimes said that over-large buildings can be made suitable for [...] services by the installation of microphones and loudspeakers. But this is to misunderstand the nature of liturgy. A liturgical service is an act which is both corporal and natural. It is offered by the clergy and their people, each taking their allotted part. But it is something which is eminently natural, the act of a group of people who see each other, and through seeing each other, oddities and mannerisms included, become conscious that they are a homogeneous body engaged in a work of worship. But directly the people begin to reply not to a priest whom they see and hear reading his part of the service but to a voice coming through a loudspeaker placed either over their heads or behind their backs, the natural element in the liturgy begins to disappear, and with it too a sense that it is a corporate act of a group of people with bodies as well as souls.
2009-06-20
Prayers for Priests
A Prayer for Priests
O Jesus, Eternal Priest, keep all Thy priests within the shelter of Thy Sacred Heart where none may harm them.
Keep unstained their anointed hands which daily touch Thy Sacred Body. Keep unsullied their lips purpled with Thy Precious Blood.
Keep pure and unearthly their hearts sealed with the sublime marks of Thy glorious priesthood.
Let Thy holy love surround them and shield them from the world's contagion.
Bless their labours with abundant fruit, and may the souls to whom they have ministered be here below their joy and consolation and in Heaven their beautiful and everlasting crown. Amen.
O Mary, Queen of the clergy, pray for us; obtain for us a number of holy priests.
A Prayer for Holiness in Priests
Grant, O Lord, that every hand laid upon Thee at the altar may be a friendly hand, whose touch is tender and consoling as Joseph's was; that the lips which form so many sacred words may never be profaned by frivolous or unworthy speech; that priests may guard, even in the noisy streets of the city, the impress of their noble functions, the bright token that they have but lately come down from Thy holy mountain; and in their garmentsthe fragrance of the altar, that everyone may find them living memorials of Thee, accessible to all, yet more than other men.
Grant that they may contract from the Mass of today a hunger and thirst for the Mass of the morrow, that the sacred anticipation be their last thought at night and Thy tender summons their first awareness in the morning; that Thy priests, filled with Thee and Thy good gifts may give largely to the rest of men who look to Thee. Amen.
O Jesus, Eternal Priest, keep all Thy priests within the shelter of Thy Sacred Heart where none may harm them.
Keep unstained their anointed hands which daily touch Thy Sacred Body. Keep unsullied their lips purpled with Thy Precious Blood.
Keep pure and unearthly their hearts sealed with the sublime marks of Thy glorious priesthood.
Let Thy holy love surround them and shield them from the world's contagion.
Bless their labours with abundant fruit, and may the souls to whom they have ministered be here below their joy and consolation and in Heaven their beautiful and everlasting crown. Amen.
O Mary, Queen of the clergy, pray for us; obtain for us a number of holy priests.
A Prayer for Holiness in Priests
Grant, O Lord, that every hand laid upon Thee at the altar may be a friendly hand, whose touch is tender and consoling as Joseph's was; that the lips which form so many sacred words may never be profaned by frivolous or unworthy speech; that priests may guard, even in the noisy streets of the city, the impress of their noble functions, the bright token that they have but lately come down from Thy holy mountain; and in their garmentsthe fragrance of the altar, that everyone may find them living memorials of Thee, accessible to all, yet more than other men.
Grant that they may contract from the Mass of today a hunger and thirst for the Mass of the morrow, that the sacred anticipation be their last thought at night and Thy tender summons their first awareness in the morning; that Thy priests, filled with Thee and Thy good gifts may give largely to the rest of men who look to Thee. Amen.
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