Has it really been?

I know, I promised I would write more on this little blog. Today, though, marks a new step in the life of my blogging. I'm writing is from balmy Orlando, Florida, on my new "toy", an iPad.

Since 2005, I've always been able to get away from the parish sometime on the 2nd week of Easter. It started when some of us were still Parochial Vicars, and so time off on the first week of Easter was usually reserved for our Pastors. This also worked out well with the schedule down in Orlando, which tended to be super crowded when schools were off, either Holy Week or Easter Week. This year, though, Easter was extraordinarily late, and the 2nd week of Easter was actually the first week of May. In looking at the calendar, with religious education over for the year and 1st Communion and May Crowning out of the way, I was able to get down.

So there you go, a blog entry from an undisclosed location. I'm here on the blogosphere, and now it doesn't matter where "here" is.

Bishop Conley on the new Mass translation

Click HERE for a transcript (provided by Zenit News Service) of an address by Bp. James Conley, auxiliary of Denver - and alumnus of Mount St. Mary's Seminary. Here are some appetite-whetting quotes:

In Advent, we are going to introduce a major new English translation of the Mass with the third typical edition of the Roman Missal.

What are Catholics in the pews going to make of the changes in the words they pray and the words they hear the priest praying? Will the changes make any difference in their experience of the Mass? In the way they worship? In the way they live their faith in the world?

This new edition of the Missal is the Church’s gift to our generation. It restores the ancient understanding of the Eucharist as a sacred mystery. It renews the vertical dimension of the liturgy — as a spiritual sacrifice that we offer in union with the sacrifice that our heavenly High Priest celebrates unceasingly in the eternal liturgy.

First Holy Communion rant

That's probably a bad title, because what I'm about to tell you can easily be seen at other church events. Pick one: wedding, confirmation, baptism, funeral. It's there.

Look at the irony: we spend weeks teaching the 2nd grade children that the Eucharist is an amazing gift from God, and that every church has the Eucharist kept in the Tabernacle, and that, when we are in the presence of the Tabernacle, that Jesus can see and hear us and we can speak to him. We teach them that the day they receive their 1st Holy Communion will be a truly special day, and that they should behave in a way that shows they understand it is a special day. We rehearse them to walk in a solemn procession, to keep their hands folded together in a prayerful gesture, to stand and sit and kneel at the proper times, to receive the Blessed Sacrament properly (either tongue or hand), and then to go back to their seat and reflect on that great gift in silence. Of course, we tell them not to spend the Mass speaking to the children on either side of them.

Then, the day of the Mass comes. The kids are fine. The grown ups? THEY SUCK!

I'll leave it at that.

Priests can relate

Some go for the stunning sunset, but there is no more magnificent sight to behold than an empty parking lot, that only a week before was loaded with cars because of CCD.

Excuse me, I need a tissue.

International Star Wars Day

May the fourth be with you!

The Tomb of Sts. Philip and James

I took this during a 2008 trip to Rome. Their tomb is located in the crypt level of the Church of the Holy Apostles in Rome. In 570, Pope John III placed the bones of Sts. Philip & James, recently brought back from the east, in this church and dedicated it to them and to all the Apostles.

A seminary buddy, Fr. Gary Coulter, studied in Rome and has posted many of his pictures online. Here is a photo he took of the tomb.

Beatification: NOT the last stop!

Fourteen years ago, I was in the spring semester of Third Theology, preparing for ordination to the Diaconate. There were two of us from the Metuchen Diocese at The Mount, and both of us wanted to be ordained with our seminary classmates at the Basilica of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Emmitsburg. I went to see my Bishop, to ask him for permission for the two of us to be ordained "out west". Bishop Hughes said he had no problem with it. Diaconate ordinations, he said, can get a little "over the top", especially when done at the home parish of the guy being ordained. The zeal of the parishioners to make it a wonderful celebration means it can, at times, end up eclipsing the Priesthood ordination that will follow the following year.

This was a thought I've been having in the aftermath of Pope John Paul's Beatification. What could be done to top it? Could the crowd be any bigger? The all-star lineup any more impressive? The weather nicer? The music more glorious? Sadly, there's nowhere to go BUT down when it comes to expectations from both within and outside the Church (and the media will be looking for some way to criticize it).

In the case of seminarians, the Diaconate is wonderful, but not the ultimate goal. Similarly, Beatification is marvelous and terrific and (to be British for a moment) brilliant, but not the final goal. The final goal is Canonization. There is no "striving for permanent beatification", and stopping there.

There is another thought here (my head is full of 'em): Pope Benedict is no fool. He is the one who returned the tradition of beatification Masses being celebrated not by the Pope, but by a designated Cardinal (usually the Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints). Of course, being Pope has it's perks, and when it's someone you have a fondness for, you can always bump the tradition and do it yourself. Pope Benedict did for Blessed John Henry Newman, and obviously here for Blessed Pope John Paul. But maybe he allowed all the pomp and devotion because he doesn't think the canonization will happen in the foreseeable future. Maybe like the Hebrew slaved freed from Egypt, they will not see the promised land, but their children will. For us, this may be it for what we will see in our lifetimes.

In the meantime, this is a neat little video explaining the difference between Beatification and Canonization, explained by Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, former Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

Bl. John Paul II arrives at his new home

Thank you, Rome Reports, for the video footage.

There's one in every crowd

"What do you mean it was at ten AM???"

It was pretty easy to tell who was the last to receive from the abnormally overfilled chalice.

Thank you, Reuters, for the pics.

Back in the saddle again

Last night I found out my pal, Fr. Guy Selvester, decided to re-enter the blogosphere. Check him out at his new location, OMNIApost.

The First Time

The Catholic (and others, too) world rejoices today in the Beatification of Pope John Paul II. I presume we officially call him "Pope Blessed John Paul II" (if we base it on the way we speak of "Pope St. Pius X"), or, "Blessed John Paul II" for short. Whatever we call him, the joy of the Easter season is made that much sweeter because of Pope Benedict's declaration that we enroll Karol Josef Wojtyła amongst the Blessed of the Church.

So here I am, awake for the ceremony, listening to the homily of the Holy Father while I type this. Irreverent? Nope, I never said this counted for my Mass attendance (for the record, I have my usual 3 to do today). But either the muse has struck me or the caffeine has kicked in, and so I'm ready to type.

Four times I was privileged to attend Mass in what we now know to be purely Blessed John Paul's invention: attendance at the Holy Father's Mass, in the chapel of the Papal Apartment. What a gift! Each of the four Masses took place at different steps along my journey to the Priesthood: one in college seminary (1994), two during Major Seminary (1995 and 1996), and one after Priestly ordination (2001). I thought I'd share some thoughts about each time, using what I had written in my diary at the time (please excuse the grammatical errors). So, today, here are the notes I wrote after the first time I attended Mass with Pope John Paul:

Saturday, January 8, 1994

5:47am

Well, perhaps I slept about 3-4 hours total, that being broke up into 30-45 minute bursts. Thank God, both alarms worked and even if I slept, I'd have been woken up. I know this last hour will go slower than the last 8 hours since I heard the news.

1:20pm

What an unforgettable morning. How memorable this has been and will continue to be for the rest of my life. But let me start from the beginning:

We left here [the house we were staying in] at 6:05. Well, not exactly. We found out we're locked in this building! Even the courtyard doesn't let you out to the street. So after a brief panic attack, I discover a window that we can get out of, so we did just that, looking like 2 well dressed burglars.

We get to the Bronze Doors at 6:25 and already there are 5 people waiting. Using my German for the first time in years, I strike up polite conversation. [The other seminarian with me] is making sure his shirt collar is alright. We go up the stairs and, after giving our names to a plainclothes guard, we're let in. AT about 6:35 we begin the ascent to the Papal apartments.

O.K., so now we're up in the chapel. We're lead to our seats, but where's the Pope? All the pictures I've seen, he's usually praying in his chair while people are seating. "Oh no, he's not going to do this", I fear. But then I see the vestments on the altar and a little white zucchetto and I calm down.

Let me describe the chapel. About 20-24 feet wide and about 60 feet long. Done mostly in black and white with black backless stools for us to sit in. The floor is black and white marble, and the ceiling is one giant stained glass collage which looks artificially lit. At the far wall is an altar with a tabernacle at the front & center. To the left are 3 lit candles and to the right is a bunch of lilies ("But this isn't Easter", I wonder). A bronze crucifix hangs above the altar with a picture of Our Lady of Czestochowa at the foot of the Cross. Access to the sacristy is from behind the altar, and on either side of the access walls are earth-toned mosaics of the crucifixion of St. Peter and the beheading of St. Paul. At the left side of the chapel is a creche with a baby Jesus in it. A pulpit is off to the left. In front of the stools is a large green copper chair in the center with a white cushioned prie-dieu. This is the Pope's seat.

By 7:10, the secretaries are with us sitting, and I know it's going to happen soon. From behind the altar comes the Pope, looking, I must confess, a little tired. He stands before the altar, and with precision and dignity, the secretaries dress him for Mass. First, the amice, the alb, the chasuble, then back with the pectoral cross. They do this so precise that one secretary kneels behind the Pope and fixes the pleats on his alb so they fall straight. I get the feeling they do this whether there are people there or not.

Mass was in French, so I could follow it a little. After Communion and a brief while after Mass, we had silent meditation. I prayed for all who I care for, and even those I don't care for. Eventually we were led to the conference room where I shook his hand and had photos. Soon, the photo proofs will be ready and I've got to check those out soon.

Pope John Paul's Barber

Rome Reports has been posting videos of stories revolving around the Beatification of Pope John Paul. Definitely worth checking out on YouTube. Here's one of them that caught my eye:

Wonder whether he kept any of the Pope's hair? Wouldn't they be 1st class relics?

Happy Easter

Fr. Cantalamessa's homily

Here is the text of Fr. Cantalamessa's homily from Good Friday.

Spy Wednesday

Spy Wednesday. Traditionally, the day Judas Iscariot made the deal to reveal a place Jesus could be arrested. Because of it, Judas' made his very name synonymous with betrayal. What do we know about him?

If you go by artists' depictions, then the other 11 Apostles were a bunch of idiots not to see this coming.

One Lord.

Twelve guys.

Eleven halos.

You do the math.

Other artistic depictions show Judas with a tormented scowl, making us thing he had a perpetual sourpuss face that should have made revealing him as the betrayer pretty simple to deduce.

But it couldn't have been that way.

Even though we know him now as the betrayer, Scripture tells us Judas was amongst the twelve first chosen by Jesus to be Apostles. Maybe they all came from different backgrounds, but there had to have been a zeal present in Judas' eyes and heart, just as much as it existed amongst Peter, Andrew, and the others.

This is what I think of (and have thought of in the past) when I run into brother Priests who are bitter, indifferent, angry, or have reduced their vocation as something they "do" in between their dayS off. You look at them and wonder, "They couldn't have been this way when they started!" Though it's hard to believe in some, every Priest started off on ordination day thinking they could make a difference in the world.

Another thought: Scripture tells us that, when Jesus announced at the Last Supper, "One of you is about to betray me", the Apostles all asked the Lord, "Is it I?" That means a few things to me. First, it means that the 12 were a tight group. None of the Apostles could come up with a "short list" of possible betrayers of Jesus, when pushed to do so. They were so perplexed about the betrayer's identity that they even began to question themselves. Maybe the answer comes from Scripture. John tells us that it was only after Judas accepted the morsel handed to him by Jesus that "Satan entered him". It's one thing to think about sinning; it's another to think about it and then to do it.

So what pushed Judas from thinking to doing? Maybe something as simple as jealousy. For some time the Pharisees and Temple officials have been looking for an opportunity to get to Jesus without a crowd around Him. How many of the Apostles might have been approached and propositioned, asked, "What's your price to turn Him over?" But scripture tells us Judas went to the chief Priests, not the other way around. Maybe Judas seemed unable to turn, even to them, so imagine their surprise when he comes to them. Maybe it was all about, "Why did they approach the other Apostles and not make me an offer?"

Whatever the reasons he turned, however unlikely it seemed to the Apostles, Judas' betrayal is key to setting the Passion in motion. Once the Triduum starts, we get so caught up into it that we get swept away by the current before getting much time to think about the causes. These were just my thoughts this morning, before Wednesday morning Mass.

Cantores Pueris

The London Telegraph has a video about the boys' choir that will sing at the upcoming Royal wedding. Click the link and watch a bunch of what must be 5th and 6th graders singing in (brace yourself) Latin. Nowhere in their hands did I see the "Children's Glory & Praise" book (though perhaps they use that for personal devotion).

Could a parish have a boys' choir? Could that pure tone of the pre-Peter Brady voice fill a church with angelic tones? Could a pastor survive the complaints that a choir was excluding girls? Could he endure the inevitable trash talk about "Father has a thing for boys"? One wonders.

Finally, if for no other reason, click on the link to see the boy with what must be the most difficult last name imaginable.

JP2's Feast Date

Rome Reports has reported that the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments has issued a decree, assigning October 22 as the Feast Day for soon-to-be Blessed Pope John Paul II.

I wondered about this. If they followed the tradition of his date of death (April 3), it would be an "inconsistent" feast, only really being able to be celebrated when Easter is extraordinarily early (since the days of Lent, Holy Week, the Triduum, and the Octave of Easter would all take precedence over the commemoration of his feast).

The last line of the video is also interesting. "Until John Paul II is canonized, his memory can only be celebrated in Rome and in Poland".

Transfer of Pope Blessed Innocent XI

This is one of those times when the internet is great. A ceremony we normally would not have seen, not only because it was in Rome and we're not, but also this would be done after the normal hours when the general public is in the Basilica.

For your information, Innocent XI was Pope from 1676 to 1689, but his body has only been here since 1955, when he was Beatified.

Fr. Michael Manning needs a slap upside the head!

C'mon, Church, we're all thinking it.

If you don't know the story yet, click HERE. Here's a snippet (note the obligatory "blame celibacy" diversion):

Kotowski, 59, recently said that she and Fr. Manning are “kindred spirits and soul mates,” telling the Monterrey Herald that she hopes the news of her relationship with the priest will increase dialogue within the Catholic Church over clerical celibacy.“The reality is that we love the Church, we're committed to the Church, but I'm hoping a dialogue will open up (about) obligatory celibacy, the whole question of celibacy,” she said on April 6. “Is it right for all people?”

Two things stick out to me from the story.

1. It grinds my gears that the parties involved in these sorts of things always seem to make their case only AFTER they've been discovered. Shades of the Father Alberto Cutié brouhaha.
2. I would think that, if anything, having a long-term sexual relationship with your second cousin actually SUPPORTS the idea that at least one of you should have made a vow to remain celibate.

Archbishop Sheehan of Santa Fe

The Archbishop has written a pastoral letter on cohabitation that pulls no punches. Two pages long (no one can complain it's too long to read), he fulfills his role as a teacher of the faith for his flock (as well as the rest of us).

The letter is available by clicking on this LINK, which takes you to the letter as it is available on the archdiocesan website.

The letter has been explained and commented upon by Father Z (who also shows us the rantings of a reporter for the National Catholic Reporter) by clicking on this LINK.

A peek inside

The Sundays of Lent, I've been trying to follow the advice of Abp. Fulton Sheen, in a talk he gave about preparing a talk. He proposed writing and rewriting the talk until your notes for the talk take up no more than one page (he was able to get his notes for a live, 30-minute TV broadcast down to a piece of paper no bigger than a supermarket receipt).

What does my homily look like from my perspective? Glad you asked.

A Laetare Sunday Haiku

O rose chasuble,

How quickly you come and go.

See you in Advent!

I chose this photo because it shows Pope John Paul in the same exact rose chasuble I own. I bought it in Rome from a place called Galleria Di Arte Sacra, for a church dedication in 1999. When I saw this picture in Life Magazine in 2005, I freaked out.

6 years ago today

Growing in my priesthood

I'm fat. There, I've said it. I might even be obese. I'm not sure how many pounds overweight you have to be for that classification, but I'm up there.

The readings today smacked me in the head: Jeremiah and the stiff-necked, back-turning, hard-hearted people. The gang that are so stubbornly unwilling to accept Jesus as the messiah that they credit the Devil for saving a man from possession. The truth was right there in front of all of them, but it was so much more convenient to believe something else.

So who is to blame for my girth? Everyone but me!!!!

Nah, just kidding.

Let's try it again. Who is to blame? Me. Myself. I.

This may be a no-brainier, but living alone requires discipline in a lot of ways, especially with regards to eating habits. I'm not a victim of corporate fast food. No one held me down and jammed White Castles down my throat against my will. I wasn't lured into McDonald's because of the promise of a cute toy in a Happy Meal. It's not about the parishioners who bake for events and then insist I take the uneaten cakes back to the rectory (I even considered lying and telling them I'm a diabetic, but then they'd just make the same cakes with Splenda). It's not because of my workload or meetings. It's because of "What I have done (ate junk) and what I have failed to do (exercise)". Where have I heard that before?

I got myself where I am. Arriving at that conclusion may not seem like much of an accomplishment from your point of view, but for me this was like getting knocked off of the horse on the road to Damascus (or maybe scales falling from my eyes, I'm not sure). No more stubbornness. No more excuses why.

I write this so that I can't hide from it. You who have known me for years have known this and, God love you, you've been more than polite in not saying what is totally obvious.

I will do this myself, but I seek your help. No, not money. Accountability. Feel free to ask, "Exercised today?", or, "When was the last time you had fast food?".

There you go. Brutal honesty on the internet. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to congratulate myself with a donut. No, not really. Wouldn't that be sad?

"What's so wrong with...?"

Here's a LINK to a great article that was passed along to me. Worth a read if you're tired of the Church's liturgy becoming "improv night" at your local church.

3 Points of View

Some thoughts about this morning's 1st reading at Mass, the story of Naaman the leper.

1. Naaman, in search of a cure, heads down to Israel with a load of treasure. He presumes that a cure is going to cost him a bribe to the King. Here Naaman is concerned with handling things as he thinks other people expect.
2. He ends up at Elisha's house, parks in front, and Elisha sends him the cure in message form. Naaman is put off because Elisha doesn't even do him the courtesy of coming to the door. Im sure in his home country and in the lands he's conquered, doors get opened for him and important people fawn all over him. Now, Naaman has let the way he sees himself get in the way.
3. Finally, there is the way God sees it, and the cure to his leprosy. Naaman goes and jumps in the Jordan seven times. Not only is he cured of the leprous sores of putrefying flesh (no reason to tell you that, other than I love that word), but his skin goes back to being the skin of a baby. Only when he moves beyond others and himself can he open himself up to God.

What a great lesson in our spiritual lives.

See the big picture

The first 2 weeks of Lent tell the same story, no matter which cycle of reading we're in:

Week 1 = temptations

Week 2 = transfiguration

But in the 3rd week, the cycles break off from each other. This week we heard the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman who meet at Jacob's well. It's a great conversation between Our Lord and the Samaritan woman, but it's been a long day and I'm sure most of you reading this heard something about the conversation.

More than the parts, look at the whole. The woman has a conversation with Jesus. He speaks, she listens. She speaks, He listens. He questions, she responds. She speaks, He answers. He knows everything about her. She goes from calling him "a Jew" to "the Messiah" (meaning she has grown to know Him better). We should envy her, wish we were her, desire to imitate her.

We certainly can do so. Lent is about almsgiving, fasting, and PRAYER. Who better to put in front of us than someone who converses with the Lord? Who better to learn from and imitate.

Stations all year, penitential days every Friday

I just returned from the recitation of Stations of the Cross over in the church. Never has there been so simple a devotion that causes such havoc on knees and leg muscles for two days afterward!

I wonder why parishes don't encourage the recitation of Stations all year round. I mean, the Stations are not like the Advent wreath, here for the season and then gone 'til next time. In our churches, for the most part, they are permanent fixtures. But you never hear of public recitation of the Stations outside of the season of Lent.

Am I wrong? Please, if anyone has been to a parish that does have regular recitation of the Stations of the Cross, let me know.

Today, the Solemnity of the Annunciation, much has been made about the fact that Canon 1251 specifically says that you do not abstain from meat on days that rank as Solemnities in the Church. In other words, in celebrating the Feast of the Annunciation of Our Lord today, the Church asked us to "step out" of Lent. We wore white vestments. We sang/chanted/recited the Gloria and the Creed. The final piece of it is that we were given a "treat" by the Church to allow ourselves some meat today. We do it when St. Joseph's Day falls on a Friday. We have to ask to do it with regards to St. Patrick, since his feast is a commemoration during Lent (ranking him with St. Turibio, among others), and not a Solemnity. Like most things in the Church, though, there is even an exception to that. If you live in a diocese or archdiocese that has St. Patrick as a diocesan patron or secondary patron (New York, Boston, Burlington (VT), Erie (PA), Fort Worth, Harrisburg, Norwich (CT), or Sacramento), then his feast is celebrated as a Solemnity, and no dispensation from the law is needed.

Now, part of this "ho hum" attitude is that, for many of us, Fridays of Lent are the only times meat is not a regular part of our diets. To understand the treat we're given in Canon 1251, we need to look at Canon 1250:

"All Fridays through the year and the time of Lent are penitential days and times throughout the universal Church."

Heard about that lately?

On Beatification and Bones

A part of the process connected with the upcoming beatification of Pope John Paul II is starting to make waves.

An AP story carried on Yahoo news talks about relics connected to JP2, whether first class (parts of his body - or, as you can read, his blood) or second class (items used by the late Pontiff - clothing, etc.).

Part of the procedures leading up to Beatification involves exhumation and examination of the deceased's body, as well as the collection of 1st class relics (10 pounds, I once read) to be sent to Rome. Since Pope John Paul is obviously already in Rome, this will be a much simpler process.

This will give the media a chance to poke more fun at the Church, calling us ridiculous for such devotion to clothing and body parts. The thing is, these are the same people who were awfully quiet when the clothing belonged to Princess Diana or Jacqueline Onassis, or the hair belonged to Elvis or Michael Jackson.

2 great Dolan posts

Both of these come from Archbishop Dolan's blog:

The first one is the Archbishop telling a story about an encounter he had in an airport. Not for the faint of heart, but the reality of the way some people see things.

The second one is the Archbishop's pastoral letter, entitled, "The Altar and the Confessional".

The Meat Police - encore

I first wrote this blog entry during Lent of 2007, when I was assigned at another parish. But, this past Friday, as I stopped in a local pizzeria for some meat-free lunch, the same situation happened once again as it did four years ago:

Priests wear many hats in their daily work. Yes, supernaturally we're "other Christ's", and "co-workers of the Bishops." But naturally, if you will, at times we wear the hat of an office manager, a teacher, a decorator, a floral designer, a carpenter, and quite often a janitor.

And today I realized we have another title that only comes out this time of year.

So there I was, walking into my local pizzeria, ready to get myself some lunch, when I realized that people are looking over at me. Then, suddenly, it's a little quieter than it was when I first walked in. People started contorting, twisting as if they were protecting whatever it was on their tables.

That's when it hit me. It's a Friday of Lent, officially a meatless day, it's lunch time, and I've become the freakin' Meat Police!

All the Catholics in the place are treating me like this is a roadside drunk-driver checkpoint, and I've got a flashlight pointed at their plates. "Hmmmm, is that a BLT I see?" "Did you seriously think a turkey burger doesn't count as meat?" I'm like those Gestapo agents in Hogan's Heroes who only seem to say, "Your papers, please."

To be honest, I really don't care what they were eating. But it was kind of fun watching the Catholics in the pizza shop show me how incredibly bad they'd be at playing poker. The part of their brains that houses "Catholic guilt" works faster than the part of their brains that tells muscles not to make sudden movements in a vain attempt to hide the hoagie.

Your faces gave you away, but I'll let you off with a warning this time.

SC 54

About once a month, as the schedule allows, I do a "Catholic Q&A" in my parish, inviting anyone and everyone to come learn more about our faith. One of the questions I received had to do with the fact that, during the season of Lent, we've begun using the Latin Agnus Dei plainchant during daily Mass. The questioner wondered if this was just for Lent or a permanent thing.

In answering the question, I rambled a bit [no surprise if you know me] and eventually read for them from Vatican II's Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, paragraph 54:

"A suitable place may be allotted to the vernacular in Masses which are celebrated with the people ... Nevertheless care must be taken to ensure that the faithful may also be able to say or sing together in Latin those parts of the Ordinary of the Mass which pertain to them."

I think this surprised most of the people there. While most Catholics will tell you that "Vatican II called for the end of Latin", not many have heard that, when it comes to musical settings, through the years we were supposed to have been taught to be able to recite or sing the Gloria, Creed, Sanctus, Mortem Tuam (a.k.a. memorial acclamation), Our Father, and Lamb of God.

Hopefully by now the Catholic who attends Mass weekly knows that the English translation of Mass will be changing next Advent. Along with the prayers, we'll also be hearing new musical settings for the retranslated Mass propers. Along with the new settings in English, I think a golden opportunity exists to, about 50 years after the fact, implement what was called for by the Council.

Some thoughts

I'm trying to make good on my resolution to blog more, so having just finished Mass, a funeral, and some laundry, I've got a moment.

Every time I said the word, "Temptations" (a few times per homily/4 homilies in the weekend), all I could think about was the musical group. "My Girl" kept going through my head. But anyway...

It was a great weekend for readings, if we're going to take Lent as a time to reflect upon sin, our weakness, and the usefulness of the season in our goal to defeat sin.

First, the 1st Reading:

The Devil is cunning. He's not some buffoon in a red suit and a pitchfork. He's dangerous. His presence requires our attention.

"Did God really tell you no to eat from any of the trees in the garden?" Of course God didn't say that, and the Devil knows that. That's a lie. All sin is a lie.

"You certainly will not die." True, your body will not die if you eat the fruit (the tree is not poisonous), but that's not the problem. We are body and soul, and each will be affected by breaking God's command. As for the body, eat of it and your life afterwards will certainly suck, compared to how good you had it before. As for the soul, there's the bigger problem. Bodies die, souls do not. For all the bad that will happen to the body after Original Sin (work for your food, sweaty labor, pain in childbirth, etc.), at least that ends with death. A soul separated from God through deliberate, grave sin will remain that way forever. If there's fruit on every freakin' tree around you, is it really worth it to eat the one you're not supposed to?

"The moment you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods..." Well, there it is, isn't it? The root of sin. Making ourselves little 'mini-gods'.

"The woman saw that the tree was good for food, pleasing to the eyes..." All sin looks good from a distance. It makes sense at the moment we think of doing it.

"she also gave some to her husband, WHO WAS WITH HER," Adam was there the whole time Eve is being tempted and doesn't say a word. If Eve sinned by commission, Adam's sin was omission. Sometimes we sin by doing; other times by not doing.

"Then the eyes of both of them were opened" After sin comes shame for ourselves and distance from other people as well as between us and God.

Now, the Gospel:

"command that these stones become loaves of bread." Matthew tells us Jesus is hungry, and the Devil knows it. He could have tempted Jesus on day 4, or 7, or 19, or 36, but he waited until he was hungry. The Devil knows our weakness(es). He's not going to attack us where we're strong (remember, he's no idiot), he goes for the flaws. Lent is a time to work on our weaknesses, to acknowledge them and do what needs to be done to make them less so. So what about the temptation, 'turn stones into bread'? In other words, "Satisfy yourself, Jesus. Take what you want. Don't wait, don't deny yourself." The Devil's first temptation, even when it comes to us, is to SELFISHNESS. We are an instant gratification society.

"Throw yourself down. God will catch you, won't He?" Test God, Jesus. If you won't, are you afraid He won't be there? Afraid He won't 'pass the test'? The second way the Devils tempts is is to DOUBT. Maybe God isn't there? Maybe I'm not important or good enough to earn His attention? There's real suffering in Japan, am I wrong in bothering God with my little problems? If I can't conquer these little things, should I even bother the big things? The Devil loves playing mind games with us, beware of them.

"All these I shall give you, if you will prostrate yourself and worship me." OK, I can't break you of your relationship with God the Father, but I can certainly make your life easier, Jesus. Just bend your knee to me, Jesus, in submission. No one has to know; it'll be our little secret. The third temptation is to COMPROMISE. Where do we find that? In the Catholics who do attend Mass weekly, but think it's perfectly fine to arrive late or leave early. In those who do go to Confession, but deliberately hold back saying all their sins.

SELFISHNESS. DOUBT. COMPROMISE. Wanna know where to focus your attention during Lent?

How I spent my summer vacation

Well, not really. Last summer is a memory, and next summer hasn't happened yet.

But it has been 43 days since my last entry. In the last two weeks, in particular, I've had more than a few people ask me why I wasn't blogging anymore.

No reason, really. Lots of reasons, actually. I don't know. What was the question again?

To be honest, blogging is a bit of a thing of the past. Facebook does it better, and it's much easier to put a thought or two onto a Facebook page than have to write something relevant, witty, and complete, on a blog. Don't get me wrong, I am overwhelmingly flattered that people want to read what I have to say. I thank you all for your support and your very kind words. You mean the world to me.

I've also been a bit busy lately, unlike some of the bloggers out there, I have a "daytime job", so to speak, and that comes first (and second, and third). Blogging has always been more of a freetime activity than a ministry, so when the freetime diminishes, so does the blogging.

BUT, Lent is here, and with it, the chance to not just eliminate something from my life but also add something. So, yes, I will try to be more attentive to the blog and spewing my sludge around the blogosphere for any and all who wish to read.

I'll be around here more often, and I hope you will, too.

FrJT

Alive and kicking

I apologize for my sporadic blogging. Lately my time has been taken up with shoveling and my new one: shaking wet snow from the branches of trees so they won't snap and kill the tree.

Canons 528 and 529

A former Canon Law professor of mine brought these canons to my attention. If you're a Priest, read 'em. If you're not, copy them and send them to your parish Priests. I'm thinking of taping them to my bathroom mirror so I read them every morning.

Can. 528 §1. A pastor is obliged to make provision so that the word of God is proclaimed in its entirety to those living in the parish; for this reason, he is to take care that the lay members of the Christian faithful are instructed in the truths of the faith, especially by giving a homily on Sundays and holy days of obligation and by offering catechetical instruction. He is to foster works through which the spirit of the gospel is promoted, even in what pertains to social justice. He is to have particular care for the Catholic education of children and youth. He is to make every effort, even with the collaboration of the Christian faithful, so that the message of the gospel comes also to those who have ceased the practice of their religion or do not profess the true faith.

§2. The pastor is to see to it that the Most Holy Eucharist is the center of the parish assembly of the faithful. He is to work so that the Christian faithful are nourished through the devout celebration of the sacraments and, in a special way, that they frequently approach the sacraments of the Most Holy Eucharist and penance. He is also to endeavor that they are led to practice prayer even as families and take part consciously and actively in the sacred liturgy which, under the authority of the diocesan bishop, the pastor must direct in his own parish and is bound to watch over so that no abuses creep in.

Can. 529 §1. In order to fulfill his office diligently, a pastor is to strive to know the faithful entrusted to his care. Therefore he is to visit families, sharing especially in the cares, anxieties, and griefs of the faithful, strengthening them in the Lord, and prudently correcting them if they are failing in certain areas. With generous love he is to help the sick, particularly those close to death, by refreshing them solicitously with the sacraments and commending their souls to God; with particular diligence he is to seek out the poor, the afflicted, the lonely, those exiled from their country, and similarly those weighed down by special difficulties. He is to work so that spouses and parents are supported in fulfilling their proper duties and is to foster growth of Christian life in the family.

§2. A pastor is to recognize and promote the proper part which the lay members of the Christian faithful have in the mission of the Church, by fostering their associations for the purposes of religion. He is to cooperate with his own bishop and the presbyterium of the diocese, also working so that the faithful have concern for parochial communion, consider themselves members of the diocese and of the universal Church, and participate in and sustain efforts to promote this same communion.

Let it snow (just not on a shopping day)

Weather is an amazing thing. One week ago I could look out my window and we were in the midst of an honest to goodness blizzard. One week later, and most of the snow has melted, the streets are clear, and the only people who are still cranky are New Yorkers (No surprise there; They're always angry about something).

Lots of criticism has been thrown at Gov. Christie for not being in the state to personally drive a plow across the thousands of square miles of our state. But who is really to blame, and what are people really mad at?

If you want to be mad at something, be mad at the blizzard. This was a major storm: lots of snow, high winds, temperature below freezing. But, hey, NEWSFLASH: IT'S WINTER! This is what is supposed to happen. Want to get me nervous? Give me a blizzard in August.

Let's go back to the Governor. Does the State regulate snow plowing? Should it? Of course not. You really want the question of whether your street deserves attention being made by someone who doesn't live in your town? You want someone staring at a map down in Trenton who can order your town's snowplows to the other side of the state? GOVERNORS DO NOT CONTROL SNOWPLOWS; MAYORS DO! The one thing State government has right is that it knows that local towns know their streets better than the State does. Here's a question worth asking: Thanks to the press, everyone knows Gov. Christie was on vacation when the storm hit. But do you know whether, between Christmas and New Year's, your town's mayor was around? Heck, we had a major blizzard along the east coast, affecting 4-5 states, our President was in Hawaii, and everyone seems to be fine with that.

So why the anger? Comfort. We don't mind being told we have to stay inside for a snowstorm. But, whether there is three inches or three feet of snow, we want it all cleaned and pretty so we can get back to our usual lives the very next day. C'mon, it's after Christmas! We've got gifts to return, giftcards to cash in, and supermochafrappalattes to suck down at the mall.

Most Priests try to take a little break following Christmas, and the blizzard did squash many a travel plan (clergy included). And, though I have gone away in the past, I had no such plans this year. But I have to say this: from Sunday afternoon until about Tuesday evening, I had a very relaxing post-Christmas rest, right here in my Rectory.

For that, I say, if you really are to blame, then "Thank you, Governor Christie".

Bishop Thomas Olmstead

If you haven't heard the backstory, Bishop Olmstead of Phoenix forbade a hospital to call itself a "Catholic hospital" because it performed a direct abortion. Now he's facing his own blizzard of negative press, not only from the pro-abortion gang you'd expect, but from a bunch of what are supposedly our own troops, who I think see themselves mirrored in that hospital.

In this clip, Bp. Olmstead was asked how he felt about all the negative things being said about him in the blogosphere.

Good answer. So many times as Priests, Deacons, Religious, laity, we allow the truth to pass through the filter of, "Will this make people not like me?" (the grammar may not be the best, but you know what I mean)

Where have all the flowers gone?

Fr Z's blog linked to RedState.com's story on Planned Parenthood's recently released 2008-09 annual report. The report shows that, in 2008-09, Planned Parenthood received $363 million in government grants and contracts. A bulk of that, I'm sure, went to fund contraception (to prevent any new lives) and abortion (to kill the lives that did begin).

$363 million in a year. Let's remember that the next time we ponder why it is that there are more people collecting Social Security than putting into it.

Those who give homilies can relate to this

This one goes out to the Priests and Deacons who preach God's Word.

For weekend Masses, I usually have some notes to guide me. I don't read my homilies word for word (I don't think I could), but I have a guideline of where I want to go with it, and whatever I see along the way that helps me get there, so be it.

But for weekday homilies, I just go at it. By way of preparation, before Mass I check out the readings, read the Barclay Commentary on it, and try to read a bit about the Saint of the day (if there is one). What thread connects them all? Where's my "foot in the door" to get the crowd's attention? What do they need to know about this saint? How do I do it all in under 5 minutes?

This morning I preached about St. Nicholas. I got it all in: his connection to Santa Claus, the stories of his generosity, his theological fortitude in the days of the Arian heresy and the Council of Nicea. If I may say so, I was funny, profound, and left them knowing more about the Saint than they did before the Mass.

Preachers, when we're done, have a moment to ourselves. That little time that it takes to walk from the ambo to the chair is the time when we know in our hearts how we did with our homily. Today, it felt like this:

Though there are also days it feels like this:

Fr. Cantalamessa on atheism

With the brouhaha over the billboard by the Lincoln Tunnel, atheism has been in the news lately. Father Cantalamessa's recent Advent meditation for the Holy Father and the Papal Household, titled, "The Christian Answer to Atheist Scientism", has a great passage:

There are nocturnal birds, such as the owl and the little owl, whose eye is made to see in the dark of night, not in the day. The light of the sun would blind them. These birds know everything and move at ease in the nocturnal world, but know nothing of the daytime world. Let us adopt for the moment the genre of the fable, where the animals speak among themselves. Lets suppose that an eagle makes friends with a family of little owls and speaks to them of the sun: of how it illuminates everything, of how, without it, everything would fall into darkness and cold, of how their nocturnal world itself would not exist without the sun. What would the little owl answer other than: "What you say is nonsense! I've never seen your sun. We move very well and get our food without it; your sun is a useless theory and therefore it doesn't exist."

It is exactly what the atheist scientist does when he says: "God doesn't exist." He judges a world he does not know, applies his laws to an object that is beyond their scope. To see God one must open a different eye, one must venture outside the night. In this connection, still valid is the ancient affirmation of the Psalmist "The fool says: there is no God."

Great reflection on the Church's funeral rite.

Zenit News Agency carried the homily given by Pope Benedict for Manuela Camagni, one of the consecrated ladies who care for the Pope and the Papal Apartments, who was killed in a car accident last week. At the end of the homily, he gave what I believe is a great reflection for any of us who have attended funerals of loved ones.

So, in this moment of sadness, we are consoled. And the liturgy renewed after the Council dares to teach us to sing "Alleluia" even in the Mass for the Dead. This is audacious! We feel above all the pain of the loss, we feel above all the absence, the past, but the liturgy knows that we are in the Body itself of Christ and that we live from the memory of God, which is our memory. In this intertwining of his memory and of our memory we are together, we are living. We pray to the Lord that we may feel increasingly this communion of memory, that our memory of God in Christ may become ever more alive, and thus be able to feel that our true life is in him and in him we all rest united. In this sense, we sing "Alleluia," certain that the Lord is life and his love is never ending. Amen.

That's just wrong!

Yesterday I received a letter, asking me about how many palms I would like for Palm Sunday, 2011.

STOP THE INSANITY!!!!!!

Advent at St. Lawrence

Some pictures I took this morning after decorating for Advent. The new addition this year is the tabernacle veil. Thanks to the ladies at Sacred Stitches for their work.

Abp. Chaput article

Archbishop Chaput has written an article for First Things Magazine's online addition about the hullabaloo over what the media says the Pope said.

Read the whole article HERE.

I leave you with one of his last thoughts:

In the context of the book's later discussion of contraception and Catholic teaching on sexuality, the Pope's comments are morally insightful. But taken out of context, they can easily be inferred as approving condoms under certain circumstances.

Black Friday "bluelight special"

Today was supposed to be so simple. The action today is all centered around retail shopping, and I had no intention of going near any stores. Simple, right?

Wrong.

My rectory is on a main street, the main street of Laurence Harbor. This street also happens to be a street that connects the Garden State Parkway to State Route 35. What that meant was that, this morning, at about 3:50am, I awoke to the sounds of cars zipping their way to and fro in front of my rectory (Note - on a normal day, my street doesn't get busy until after 5am). So why the action? People were on their way to join the rest of the drones who have been pressured into getting themselves out of bed, on what should be a day off, to walk around stores and malls at an hour when the only things that should be open are hospitals and diners!

Now, the next wave comes. I'm getting e-mails like crazy today, throwing discount codes and free shipping at me in a vain attempt to get me to do over the computer what I refuse to do in person.

So, in my attempt to turn lemons into lemonade, I will pass one on to you.

This one comes from the website Mexgrocer.com, who specialize primarily in Mexican food. But, they also sell (and I know because I have bought a few from them over the years) excellent prints of the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe. With her feast day coming up in a few weeks (the 3rd Sunday of Advent this year), I figured some of you may want to get yourself a nice print. In addition, I was told by my e-mail, if you put the phrase MASECATAMALES in the coupon code box at check out, you'll get 25% off of your entire order.

Fr. Joseph Fessio article

Father Fessio weighs in on the kerfuffle (and gives another good analogy of understanding what the Pope said).

Here’s an example of this distinction that parallels what the Pope said. Muggers are using steel pipes to attack people and the injuries are severe. Some muggers use padded pipes to reduce the injuries, while still disabling the victim enough for the mugging. The Pope says that the intention of reducing injury (in the act of mugging) could be a first step toward greater moral responsibility. This would not justify the following headlines: “Pope Approves Padded Pipes for Mugging” “Pope Says Use of Padded Pipes Justified in Some Circumstances”, Pope Permits Use of Padded Pipes in Some Cases”.

The article can be found HERE.

George Weigel article

George Weigel weighs in about the media's attempt at Goebbel-ing* the Pope's remarks.

Click HERE for the WEIGEL article.

* Josef Goebbels, Nazi Minister of Propaganda, said, "If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it."

Janet Smith article

Someone asked me to post the link to the article by Janet Smith from which the analogy in the previous blog entry was taken.

You can read her article by clicking HERE.

BE WARNED: ANYONE WHO WRITES THAT POPE BENEDICT CHANGED THE CHURCH'S TEACHING ABOUT CONDOMS IS FULL OF [EXCREMENT]

In the next few days, you're going to read and watch news stories from a variety of media outlets telling you that Pope Benedict has "seen the light" and now understands that condom use by Catholics could be morally permissible. If you read this, think this:

Catholic apologist Jimmy Akin lays out well what the Holy Father said and the context in which he said it: READ JIMMY'S BLOG ARTICLE

In the article, Dr. Janet Smith gives a great analogy of what the Holy Father actually said:

"If someone was going to rob a bank and was determined to use a gun, it would better for that person to use a gun that had no bullets in it. It would reduce the likelihood of fatal injuries. But it is not the task of the Church to instruct potential bank robbers how to rob banks more safely and certainly not the task of the Church to support programs of providing potential bank robbers with guns that could not use bullets. Nonetheless, the intent of a bank robber to rob a bank in a way that is safer for the employees and customers of the bank may indicate an element of moral responsibility that could be a step towards eventual understanding of the immorality of bank robbing."

Get the honey, Junior!

Sorry I've been away from the blogosphere lately. A few things happened here that kept me occupied.

Since I first heard it recommended by Archbishop Fulton Sheen, I've been a regular user of William Barclay's commentary on the New Testament. I find it especially helpful for my daily Mass homilies, in the way they give a historical background to the people, places, and things found in Scripture (giving Mass attendees a tiny insight into the reading's context). Abp. Sheen does give a caveat: Barclay is a Presbyterian Minister, so his perspective on certain Scripture passages (John 6, Matthew 16:18, John 20:22, etc.) is not particularly Catholic. But by and large, the books are a great resource for anyone who leads a bible study or preaches regularly.

This one I found neat, for today's First Reading from Revelation, about the scroll being sweet like honey:

"It may well be that behind these words lies a pleasant Jewish educational custom. When a Jewish boy was learning the alphabet, it was written on a slate in a mixture of flour and honey. He was told what the letters were and how they sounded. After the original instruction, the teacher would point at a letter and would ask: 'What is that and how does it sound?' If the boy could answer correctly, he was allowed to lick the letter off the slate as a reward!"

Thanks for nothing, St. Patrick!

Article: Poisonous Snake Found in Box of Grapes in Northern Ireland

Relics

Today was All Saints Day, and many oratories, shrines, and parishes (my own included) put out the relics of Saints for the veneration of the faithful. To some, the idea of bits of bone is a bit creepy. But I think it's a great reminder to all of us.

First, it reminds us that the Saints were real. Too many of today's heroes are not real; just characters created by a bunch of unknown writers who gather around a table each week and make sure this person says the funniest or most profound things while stuntmen make sure they do amazing things and casting directors have made sure they're incredible looking. The Saints were flesh and blood (and bone) like you and me, warts and all.

Look at what we "venerate" in pop culture: JFK's golf clubs, Jackie's jewelry, a baseball card, a football, Princess Diana's dresses, Elvis' sunglasses, Mr. Spock's rubber ear tips, a typewriter used by Hemingway. Using any of them doesn't make me powerful or glamorous or profound. But they remind me that it's the user who turns ordinary things into extraordinary ones, not the other way around. Can you imagine someday someone paying admission to look into your bedroom from behind a velvet rope?

What will be left behind of you or me 10 years after we're dead? 50 years? 200 years? We have a few years on earth to make our holiness known. If we do it right, we'll be talked about a thousand years after we're gone. That's amazing. Those are the Saints.

Geez, I'm in a weird mood tonight.

T. on L.'s article (thanks to Z). Sounds like a James Bond plot.

Father Z's blog turned me on an essay written by Fr. Dwight Longenecker (whose blog I don't read as often as I should) on the topic of celebrating Mass ad orientem (here's the test: "ad orientem" to the optimist means, "the Priest, together with the community, facing God together". To the pessimist, "ad orientem" means, "the Priest turning his back on the people in a malicious return to the evil, wicked, Pre-Vatican II days").

The last two paragraphs jumped out at me, personally, because I've seen it in myself and in others.

"...when everyone has to look at the priest all the time I am not surprised that so many of our church liturgies have become entertainment oriented and the priest is burdened to be the main entertainer. Why do so many Catholic parishes now take on the personality of their priest? Maybe because the priests are too much the center of attention. Why do so many priests seem to revel in all this attention? Maybe because every time they go to the altar they are the center attraction. Maybe this has also contributed to the narcissism and showy-ness of so many of our priests.

When I pray the Mass in the same direction of the people it is amazing how I don't have to worry about myself and what I look like and whether I'm putting enough 'feeling' into the words. Instead I merge into the people behind me who are praying with me. I feel caught up in a wave of their prayers as their prayers and mine are offered to the Lord who is up and beyond both of us. I feel no alienation at all in 'turning my back to them.' On the contrary, I feel closer to them and more one with them as we all pray in the same direction. I am no longer 'up there' with them all looking at me. Instead I am with them and one with them as together we turn toward the Lord."

Hey Jude (and Simon)

Today's feast day gives us 2 great lessons:

Simon the Zealot: What does society get zealous over? Sports teams? Charlie Sheen being found naked and passed out in a hotel room? Conan O'Brian coming back? Glee? Why do we accept a high level of devotion to a person, team, or cause, but not religion? Parents will clutter the back window of their cars with stickers, magnets, and even paint jobs that essentially say, "I'm proud of my athlete/graduate/ honor student", but when have you ever seen, "I'm proud my daughter/son was Confirmed", or, "I'm proud my child went to World Youth Day", or, "I'm proud my daughter doesn't dress like a pole dancer when she goes to the mall"?

Jude Thaddeus: Ah, the "Jimmy Carter" of the Apostles: more revered for what he did after being in office than while in it. The patron of the impossible cause. The cause of countless copies of novenas being made and randomly left in pews of churches. A money maker for newspapers, who take money from the persons who wish to publicly thank the Saint for a favor granted. The beauty of acknowledging the power of St. Jude as an intercessor for the lost cause is that this also acknowledges that, for God, no cause is lost, no happening is impossible.

Also, two great martyrdoms: St. Simon sawn alive, St. Jude speared. If you live in a parish that wants the kids to dress in Saint costumes this Sunday, let your kids make a Halloween costume out of that!

Question of the Day: Oct. 26

The first reading at Mass today is that ever-maligned Ephesians 5:21-33.

If you're a Priest, did you preach on it?

If you're anyone else who attended Mass today, did you hear anything about it?

Is that so wrong?

Sandro Magister has a great story, fresh off of Pope Benedict's announcement of his intention to create new Cardinals. You can e-subscribe to Chiesa, and get told when new articles are posted. But I digress. In his article, Magister floats an idea in the last paragraph:

Next Monday, October 25, in the academic hall of the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music in Piazza Sant'Agostino in Rome, Maestro Bartolucci will also receive an award from the Fondazione pro Musica e Arte Sacra, together with Benedict XVI's brother, Georg Ratzinger, another great proponent of liturgical music.

And it will be as if the purple given to the former is also honoring the latter. Something not entirely bizarre, if one remembers that Leo XIII, at his first consistory in 1879, made a cardinal of his brother Giuseppe Pecci, a Jesuit and the deputy librarian of the Vatican library.

An interesting "what if?" I'm afraid of how the media would react, but still there should be something to being the Pope's brother. Could anyone, other than the Holy Father himself, ever really know the influence or counsel Msgr. Georg has been during their lifetime?

What would happen if Pope Benedict made Msgr. Georg Ratzinger a Cardinal?

• At age 86, he's ineligible to vote in a Conclave, should he outlive his younger brother.
• Within the College of Cardinals, seniority counts. As "Cardinal Ratzinger" [who thought we'd ever say that again?] he'd be there for his brother's funeral, though towards the back because of his low seniority within the Sacred College. Truthfully, he'd probably have a better seat as "the Pope's brother" than as a Cardinal.
• Cardinals are usually chosen among the world's Bishops, but not always so (and especially amongst the ad honorem ones). Though they may wear the Pontificals (mitre, pectoral cross, and of course the ring), they may ask to not be ordained a Bishop. This was true in the case of Avery Cardinal Dulles. So naming Msgr. Georg a Cardinal would not even necessarily raise him to the episcopacy.
• Nepotism? C'mon, even today I can rattle off the names of a few Priests who seem to have gotten a little something extra because of a blood relation to a Bishop.
• Hasn't been done lately? Is that on purpose, or because we've had a drought when it came to a Pope with a sibling who is a Priest? JP2 had no living siblings. Both JP1 and P6 had 2 brothers, neither clergy. I believe Pope John XXIII had a nephew, though I may be wrong.

OK, readers, anything I'm missing?

Division

No, not the math. This morning's Gospel (and something else going on) has me in a mood to opine about the topic.

At first what Jesus says sounds harsh, I mean, did the Son of God really come to break families apart? But division is a part of the life of a family. A child really can't learn to ride their bicycle until dad or mom lets go of the back of it. Like the ice skating cliché: If you never fall, you'll never learn how to pick yourself up.

Plus, let's remember that Luke the Evangelist is writing for the Christians from pagan areas, something like 50 years after the Ascension. Those who read this Gospel certainly would have known through personal experience that Christianity causes division within families and friendships. In other words: what sounds radical to us probably wasn't so radical to the original readers.

But is it really so radical to us? I can't tell you the number of times I've heard the lament of older parishioners about their children don't go to Mass (except for Christmas and Easter). More than a few times I've had the funeral Mass of a man or woman in the 80's, and looking out in the pews is like looking at the layers of an archaeological dig:

1. The deceased (let's call her Mary, for example) in the casket, front and center: 88 years old, and a daily Mass/at least monthly Confession goer.
2. Mary's children in the front pew: in their high 60's in age, come to Mass every Saturday afternoon (Sunday if they had a wedding/graduation/birthday party to go to the night before). They know when to sit and stand at Mass, and the right responses.
3. Mary's grandchildren in pew #2: in their 40s. Went through CCD, got Confirmed and never came back. They come to Mass on Christmas Eve at 4:15 (Mass started at 4) and if there's a wedding, baptism, or funeral. The postures and responses are familiar, but they're out of practice, so they just watch what the rows ahead of them are doing.
4. Mary's great-grandchildren in row 4: Teenagers. Went to CCD, but not to Mass. Don't know what to respond, or when to stand or sit. But they really don't care (and worse, they don't care that they don't care). One has her iPod earphones in; the other is playing with his Playstation. They still come up to receive Communion. Can't wait for the funeral to be over because they texted their friends to meet them for lunch.

Sounds like a divided family, no? But the truth is that there's not a lot of division there. The division that is there shows itself between the family and the Church.

• The division was there when the great-grandchildren were told in CCD that missing Mass on Sunday was an offense to God and a sin, and the parents called the CCD office to complain about what the kids were being told. What with soccer and football and cheering and hockey and apple picking and garage sales, there's just no time for church.
• The division happened in the grandchildren when they got mad at Father, because he told them that he needs to see them at Sunday Mass for a few weeks before he allows them to serve as Sponsors for their niece or nephew's Confirmation. "This is why people leave the Church!", we're told just before they hang up. [No, this is what people who have already left the Church use as the excuse they've been hunting for.]

This is the world we face, where clergy are no longer expected just to convey the Church's doctrine to the faithful, but to convince them of it, as if the Laity have the right to refuse if Father's argument isn't convincing enough. Priests have to become like Billy Mays, who had a 30 minutes to convince you that your life was meaningless and empty without some gadget, and that you absolutely need the doo-hickey in order for your life to be transformed and euphoric. Hello Billy Mays, goodbye Bing Crosby.

Let me conclude with a story a friend of mine tells. He was invited to the home of parishioners for a get-together, where he gets the line from someone who was angry after being told he couldn't have things the way he wanted for his child's wedding: "Gone are the days when the Priest was always available and willing to go out of his way to help people." He responded (with just as much sarcasm in his voice), "No, gone are the days when the Priest told you 'no', and you listened to him!"

Here's to you, Washington, DC

With the creation of Abp. Wuerl as a Cardinal on November 20, the Archdiocese of Washington, DC will, once again, have three living Archbishops who were members of the Sacred College. The last time, while Card. McCarrick was the Ordinary, included James Cardinal Hickey, who died in 2004.

William Cardinal Baum

Abp. of Washington, DC 1973-1980

Created a Cardinal - May 24, 1976

(at the age of 49!!)

Theodore Cardinal McCarrick

Abp of Washington DC 2000-2006

Created a Cardinal - Feb. 21, 2001

Blessed John Henry Newman

“God has created me to do him some definite service. He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission. I may never know it in this life but I shall be told it in the next. I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for naught…Therefore I will trust Him, whatever I am…He does nothing in vain. He knows what He is about. He may take away my friends. He may throw me among strangers. He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink, hide my future from me—still, He knows what He is about."

Big Shock: Pope names new Cardinals

In what was the worst kept secret, Pope Benedict today announced his intention to create new Cardinals at a November 20 Consistory.

I got up to watch it on the live feed of the Wednesday General Audience. The internet is a pretty amazing thing that we sometimes take for granted. I happened to be in Rome the last two times Pope Benedict announced new Cardinals. At least watching it on the net makes me feel like my streak is still alive.

Two Americans are on the list, Archbishops Raymond Burke of the Apostolic Segnatura and Donald Wuerl of DC. No O'Brien, no Dolan, the unspoken rule against having two "if-there-was-a-Conclave-voting-age" Cardinals still has an effect (Card. Keeler will turn 80 on Mar. 4, 2011; Card. Egan on Apr. 2, 2012).

Neither was there any See named out of left field (as last time's Galveston-Houston). Apparently, the chat seems to have been true that "Detroit's red hat went to Texas". Cardinal Maida turned 80 last March, yet Archbishop Vigneron was not on today's list.

OK, it's 6:30 a.m. Time for my day to start.

Pope Benedict through Superman

Remember this scene from Superman: The Movie, how that one green crystal created the Fortress of Solitude?

The London Telegraph has run a story about the parish of St. Peter's in Folkestone, Kent (England), and their decision to "jump the Tiber" and leave the Church of England for the Roman Catholic Church.

Fresh off of Pope Benedict's visit to the UK, I can't help thinking of him as that green crystal.

A little culture

When I'm working at my desk, my iTunes shuffles my library, and sure enough today it played a talk by Archbishop Dolan which he gave at Mount St. Mary's Seminary a few years ago (he was Abp. of Milwaukee at the time). In it, he quoted the Italian poet Carlo Coretto:

How much I criticize you, O Church, and yet how much I love you!

You have made me suffer, O Church, and yet how much I owe you more than anyone else.

I should like to see you destroyed, and yet I need your presence.

You have given me so much scandal, and yet you have helped me understand sanctity.

I have seen nothing in the world more devoted to obscurity, more compromised, more false--and I have touched nothing more pure, more generous, more beautiful. How often I have wanted to shut the doors of my soul in your face, and how often I have prayed to die in the safety of your arms.

No, I cannot free myself from you because I am you, although not completely.

And where would I go? To start another Church? I could not, without the same defects, because they happen to be my defects. It would then be my church, not yours. And I'm old enough to know better.

B16's letter to seminarians

Just when you thought the Year for Priests was over last June, the Vatican released a letter Pope Benedict has written to the seminarians of the world (in the way they released the letter, they themselves have tied this into the Year for Priests). Click HERE to read the letter.

Yes, written for seminarians, but some things that Priests need to hear again (as the years since our seminary days get farther and farther away). Too many times I've encountered grumpy, angry, unhappy Priests, and I've left thinking to myself, "They couldn't possibly have been this unhappy when they entered the seminary, so what happened to them?" So here are some bits from the letter:

"When the Lord tells us to 'pray constantly', he is obviously not asking us to recite endless prayers, but urging us never to lose our inner closeness to God."

"At the heart of our relationship with God and our way of life is the Eucharist. Celebrating it devoutly, and thus encountering Christ personally, should be the centre of all our days."

"The sacrament of Penance is also important. It teaches me to see myself as God sees me, and it forces me to be honest with myself."

Got God?

Photo by AP

An op-ed piece by Sis Bowman in the Zanesville (Ohio) Times Recorder is definitely worth a read.

Chilean Miners Came Closer to God

Pop quiz time

Clear your desks and take out a piece of paper and a pencil.

A Catholic's obligation to attend Mass on Sunday can be fulfilled by...

a) dropping your offeratory envelope in the rectory mail slot.

b) arriving at church before the Priest processes in and leaving after he's processed out.

c) standing in the back of church talking to someone while Mass goes on.

d) staying until the collection and then walking out.

e) attending the anticipated Mass on Saturday evening.

f) "Sunday obligation? I'm a good Catholic, and I don't believe we have to go to church to be good Catholics."

g) b and e only

h) all of the above

The answer, from what I've seen, is "h". I thought it was "g".

Go figure.

32 years ago today.