New Book--Highly Recommended

Vinnie Flynn has a beauitiful, meditative new book

on the Seven Secrets of the Eucharist. Check it out!

When Should a Liturgist be Prophetic?

My answer: Never! The 70's are over...in fact that was last century.

Press release on Bishop Trautman's address:

The Catholic Academy of Liturgy met on January 4, 2007 in Toronto, Canada, prior to the annual meeting of the North American Academy of Liturgy. The keynote speaker was Bishop Donald Trautman of Erie, Pennsylvania and chair of the Bishops’ Committee on the Liturgy of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). In his address entitled “When Should Liturgists Be Prophetic?” Trautman raised concerns about current directions in the revision now underway of the English edition of the Roman Missal being prepared by the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL). The first edition in English of the Roman Missal was issued in 1973. Drawing on biblical scholarship, historical theology, and his many years of pastoral experience as a bishop, he contended that the new translations do not adequately meet the liturgical needs of the average Catholic and expressed fears that the significant changes in the texts no longer reflect understandable English usage. Trautman argued that the proposed changes of the people’s parts during the Mass will confuse the faithful and predicted that the new texts will contribute to a greater number of departures from the Catholic Church.

The Bishop cited various problematic texts, criticizing their awkward structure and arcane vocabulary that would be very difficult for the priest to pray aloud and for the people to follow. Just as problematic for Trautman was the recent decision to change the words of consecration that refer to Christ’s blood being shed “for all” to “for many.” That change could be easily misinterpreted as denying the faith of the Roman Catholic Church that Christ died for all people.

Bishop Trautman challenged Catholic liturgical scholars of North America to assist the bishops in promoting a liturgy that is accessible and pastorally aware. He urged them, in a spirit of respect and love for the Church, to be courageous in questioning those developments that would render the liturgy incomprehensible and betray the intention of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65).

I've spent a lot of time pouring over the new translation...it is faithful to most English translations of the Scripture--and that is what these responses that we are saying are taken from.

When we gather at Mass we gather as the Body of Christ--we die to ourselves. We do not speak our own words but by and large the Word of God taken directly from Scripture--as the Body of Christ we speak with His Word, not ours. We do not move as we'd like but our gestures in unison move as one Body--again the Body of Christ. I sure wish that Bishop Trautman had spent time encouraging liturgists to catechize people versus sowing discord among them.

By the way, if you don't want your parish to be blind sided by these changes--invite me to come to your parish and speak a very simple message about why they are being made and the nature of full and active particpation as the Body of Christ in the reformed Rite--my new book A Pocket Guide to the Mass will provide an excellent resource for those looking for the Biblical basis for the words we speak at Mass, as well as what the gestures and postures mean--look for it in March of this year.

Podcasts of Interviews

Including a recent interview on KVSS on The Church's Most Powerful Novenas

Find them here.

Style Points

Bunches of them...

Florida 41,
Ohio State-invert that number 14

For all those who complained about Florida not having enough "style points" in their wins against a very tough SEC schedule--that includes a lot of rivalry games...well now you've got them and Florida could have given you a few more at the end of the game if you needed them.

Let's hope there is a playoff in NCAA in the future--so that teams that play weak schedules in big name conferences don't get all the glory--while teams like Boise State or Florida get bad mouthed by a bunch of no nothing sports writers and announcers.

Btw, Kurt (Herbstreit)now we know why you wanted a rematch so bad and why you thought Florida had no place playing your beloved Buckeyes! I'll bet reality bites!
Let's hear it also from the endless cries "does anyone think that Florida is the second best team in the country?" No, we think they are the best!

The question now must be raised after the bowls--does anyone think that Ohio State and Michigan were the two best teams in the country? Believe it or not I heard Tony Kornheiser say last night that he still thought the National Championship was played in November when Ohio State and Michigan played--is he Buckeye nuts?

Yes!!!

It's doubly great to be a Florida Gator.

One chomp, two champs.

Who would have thought that the national championship basketball coach -- Billy Donovan -- would live two doors down from the national championship football coach -- Urban Meyer -- in the same Gainesville neighborhood? Should be one hellacious Mardi gras block party.

Meyer's Gators came into this championship game billed as a team of destiny, but, brother, this was not destiny. This was domination. This was devastation. This was destruction. This was the antithesis of Nebraska 11 years ago in this very desert.

This is the 100-year anniversary of Florida football, and wouldn't you know it: The Gators pulled off one of the most shocking upsets of the century. Exactly 10 years after winning their first national title with a rout of No. 1-ranked Florida State, the Gators destroyed another undefeated team a decade later.

The naysayers said the Gators didn't belong in the game at all. The oddsmakers and media experts picked them to lose handily. But the Gators -- these gritty, gutty Gators -- did not care. Their fans were outnumbered, their team was outranked, but they believed. They believed in themselves. They believed in their coach. They believed in their quarterback.

Talk about validation and vindication, maybe now QB Chris Leak finally will get the credit he is due as one of the greatest quarterbacks in Florida and Southeastern Conference history.

And all those questions surrounding Meyer have been answered unequivocally. People wondered whether he was ready for a big-time job like Florida. People wondered whether his offense could work in the big leagues of a BCS conference. People wondered whether he ever could emerge from the immense shadow of Steve Spurrier.

Yes, yes and ohmygawd yes.

From Mike Bianchi (the greatest sports columnist out there) of the Orlando Sentinel.

Listen to Me on KVSS This Morning

Talking about The Church's Most Powerful Novenas

Listen live...

New Bishop for Salt Lake City

Auxiliary Bishop John Charles Wester of San Francisco to take over the Salt Lake City Diocese.

Baptism of the Lord

Celebrated in the United States today-- but yesterday almost everywhere else in the world. The pope commemorated the occaision with a mass in the Sistine Chapel that included baptisms.

We'll commemorate the event by playing the BCS National Championship game tonight to officially end the Christmas season. Hopefully us Gator fans will have much to cheer about as we enter ordinary time (time without college football).

In Poland--Archbishop Resigns on Day of Installation

From Asia News Italy:

The resignation of Mgr Stanislaw Wielgus from his new post as archbishop of Warsaw is an “adequate solution” to the “confusion” created in Poland by accusations about his past collaboration with the secret services of the regime. But the resignation is also a new phase in the “war” declared against the Polish Church by a “strange alliance” that unites one-time Communists and “other adversaries” that could be the nationalists.

This was the gist of a statement released yesterday by the director of the Vatican press office, Fr Federico Lombardi, about the resignation of Mgr Wielgus whose “conduct in past years during the communist regime in Poland gravely compromised his authority, also towards the faithful”. However there is more to what happened than a mere personal episode that sparked “confusion” among the faithful and that was concluded – at least for now. A wider issue is at stake here that regards the entire Polish church. “The case of Mgr Wieglus is not the first and probably not the last case of an attack against a church official based on documentation from the services of the past regime,” said Fr Lombardi. “There is endless material and in seeking to assess its value and to draw credible conclusions, we must not forget that this is a product of officials from an oppressive and blackmailing regime.”

Pope Appeals to Today's Magi

Feast of the Epiphany, from Asia News Italy:

Benedict XVI dwelt on some features of the Magi (of then and now), namely
humility and passion to seek truth rather than wealth and power. The pope said:
“They prostrated themselves before a simple baby in his mother’s arms not in the
setting of a royal palace but instead in the poverty of a shed in Bethlehem (cfr
Mt 2:11). How was it possible? What convinced the Magi that that boy was the
‘king of the Jews’? Certainly they were persuaded by the sign of the star, which
they saw ‘rising’ and which stopped right on top of the place where the Boy was
(cfr Mt 2:9). But even that star would not have been enough had the Magi not
been people intimately open to the truth. As opposed to King Herod, who was
taken up by his interests of power and wealth, the Magi were looking towards the
end of their quest and when they found it, although they were cultured men, they
behaved like the shepherds of Bethlehem: they recognized the sign and adored the
Boy, offering him precious and symbolic gifts that they brought with
them.”

The mystery of the Epiphany “contains a demanding and ever
present message” for Christians too, who often whittle their faith and witness
down to activism or sentimentalism. The pope said: “The Church, reflected in
Mary, is called to show Jesus to men, nothing else but Jesus. He is the All and
the Church does not exist other than to remain united in Him and to make Him
known to the world. May the Mother of the Word incarnate help us to be docile
disciples of her Son, Light to the nations.”

"What Would Your Mother Think?"

One of the great preachers of our day is none other than the Archbishop of Milwaukee and again here he is at his greatest giving us a lesson on the Solemnity of Mary Mother of God...

From Archbishop Timothy Dolan:

I could not get out of my head the story I heard on Christmas Day from a good friend, Father Ron Ramson, now a missionary in Kenya, visiting me for the holidays.
Seems that a seventy-three year old Daughter of Charity, also a missionary in Kenya, walked into a burglary in process at a religious house in Nairobi. The thieves were rough, ruthless, vicious, driven by violence and probably drugs. After they had pillaged the house, one of the criminals turned to Sister and leered at her, “Pull up your dress.” His intention was clear: he was going to rape this seventy-three year old nun.
With all the calmness she could muster, she looked at him and replied, “What would your mother think of you?”
Can you imagine? To a raged, pillaging rapist, she says words you would use to chide a six-year old after he had said a nasty word: “What would your mother think of
you?”
And how did the potential rapist react? He stopped, looked at Sister, thought a moment, and left her alone . ..
Those simple words had worked. That appeal to his mother had been effective.
“What would your mother think of you?” It seems that, no matter how low we may sink in life, how many mistakes, sins, or crimes we may have committed, the thought of our mother brings back all that is right, good, decent, noble, and honorable.
Moms represent the way things should be, not how bad they are. Moms remind us that we are destined for greatness, for virtue.
Bring on Mary, the Mother of Jesus, the Mother of God, the Mother of us all. In her very person she reminds us of the dignity that God the Father intended for all of us: free from sin, close to Him, united to Jesus, taken body and soul to heaven. That’s God’s plan for us all, you know.

For more of Archbishop Dolan's writing, check out Called To Be Holy.

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton

National Shrine of St. Elizabeth in Maryland

Pope: Jesus not a Fairy Tale Character

From Asia News Italy:

From rejection to indifference, from scientific atheism to the depiction of a “post-modernized” Jesus: a mere “teacher of wisdom” or so “idealized” that he seems like a fairytale character. These are some forms of “rejection of God” of our times: perhaps more subtle and dangerous than those in the past, they go against the welcome of Jesus we are called to extend at Christmas. This was the subject tackled today by Benedict XVI before 8,000 people who attended the first general audience of 2007. Last year, according to statistics of the Prefecture of the Pontifical Household, more than one million – precisely 1,031,500 – took part in 45 general audiences, while 3,222,820 people met Benedict XVI in Rome throughout 2006 in audiences, Angelus prayers and liturgical celebrations.

Music and choirs in different languages (five came from the USA) were all united in the Christmas spirit of the meeting that was mentioned by the pope who noted the Christmassy atmosphere of the audience. He said the atmosphere was an invitation to joy for the birth of the Redeemer who has “abundantly spread” goodness, mercy and love throughout the world.

The Pope coughed at times as he referred to the Gospel of John, dwelling upon the significance of Christmas as a manifestation of our being children of God, “because Jesus came to put up his tent among us”, to gather all peoples into one family, not into one people but farther still, into a single family.

But “the joy of Christmas should not make us forget the mystery of evil, the power of the shadows that seek to obscure the splendour of divine light”. And the “tragedy of rejection of Christ that expresses itself today in many different ways as it did in the past. Perhaps more subtle and dangerous are those forms of rejection of God in the modern era”, that range from “clear rejection to indifference to scientific atheism” to “the presentation of a modernized, or better still, post-modernized Jesus; Jesus as a man reduced to being a mere ‘teacher of wisdom’ and deprived of his divinity, or else a Jesus who has been so idealized that at times he seems like a fairytale character.”

But Jesus is “true God and true man” and he never tires of promoting his Gospel. At Christmas, then, it is clear that “now we know the face of God” and “the amazing announcement that God loves us”. “It was not we who loved God; it was he who loved us first”.

The Child who is born “asks that we make space for him in our hearts and society”. The pope added: “One cannot remain indifferent before Jesus” and “we too must take a stand all the time. What will our answer be?”

St. John Neumann - January 5

As far as I know, my prayer book The Church's Most Powerful Novenas is the only one that includes novenas to St. Elizabeth Ann Seton whose Feast is January 4th, St. John Neumann whose feast is on January 5th and Blessed Andre Bessette's (Feast day January 6th) novena to Saint Joseph.

 

No Church Funeral for Right-to-Die Advocate in Italy

From the CWNs:

The Rome diocese declined to allow a Catholic funeral for Piergiorgio Welby, the Italian activist who died on December 21 after his doctor disconnected his respirator.
The Rome diocese explained that during his life, Welby had “placed himself at odds with Church doctrine” by his outspoken advocacy of assisted suicide. Having been a leading advocate of the “right to die,” Welby-- who suffered from muscular dystrophy-- became the center of a heated public debate on that issue when he asked his doctors to remove the respirator that was keeping him alive.

Happy New Year!!!

2007

"O Mary,

you who have given birth to Jesus

help us to welcome the gift of peace from Him

and aid us in becoming sincere and courageous builders of peace!

-Pope Benedict XVI (January 1, 2007, Angelus)

Goodbye 2006

Feast of the Holy Family

Pope Benedict's Angelus as reported in Asia News Italy:

All the values of family life – obedience, social and religious education, mutual dedication – are found in the Holy Family. “In the life spent in Nazareth, Jesus honoured the Virgin Mary and the just Joseph, submitting to their authority for all the time of his childhood and adolescence (cfr Lk 2:51-52). In this way, he highlighted the primary value of the family in the education of the person. Jesus was introduced to the religious community by Mary and Joseph, going to the synagogue of Nazareth. With them, he learned to undertake the pilgrimage to Jerusalem, as narrated by the gospel passage proposed by today’s liturgy for our meditation. When he was 12, he stayed in the Temple and his parents took three days to find him. With this gesture, he made them understand that he had to ‘tend to his Father’s business’, that is, the mission entrusted to him by God (cfr Lk 2:41-52).”

Taking his cue from the gospel passage, Benedict XVI underlined that the family should take great care in “accompanying each of its members in the journey of discovery of God and in the plan He has in his or her regard. Mary and Joseph educated Jesus above all by their example: in his Parents, He knew all the beauty of faith, of love for God and for his Law, as well as for the demands of justice that find fulfillment in love (cfr Rm 13:10). From them, he learned in the first place that God’s will be done and that spiritual ties are worth more than blood ties.”

The pope added: “The Holy Family of Nazareth is truly the ‘prototype’ of each Christian family which, united in the Sacrament of marriage and fed by the Word and by the Eucharist, is called to realize the stupendous vocation and mission of being a living cell not only of society but of the Church, a sign and instrument of unity for all mankind.”

The pontiff said: “Let us invoke the protection of the most Holy Mary and St Joseph for each family, especially for those in difficulties. May they support them so that they will be able to resist the prompting towards disintegration of certain [traits of] modern culture that undermines the very basis of the institution of the family. May they help Christian families to be, in every part of the world, a living image of the love of God.”

New Design for the New Year

We Have a Winner!

The Fort Wayne Jaguars are my fantasy football league...from NFL.Com:

CHAMPION!

Fort Wayne Jaguars won the MICHIGAN BUCCANEERS LEAGUE Championship by a score of 75 to 70 over Michigan Madcows. Shaun Alexander led the team in scoring in the championship round and Drew Brees led the team in scoring for the season. Congrats once again to Fort Wayne Jaguars on a terrific Fantasy football Season. Hope to see you all next year!...