De Omnibus Dubitandum Est.

A brilliant piece by Fr. Robert McTeigue in Homeletic Review offers a composite picture of our beloved Catholic Church which, he proposes, is suffering from a problem with prayer. Or a lack of prayer. Lex orandi, lex credendi, lex vivendi is the old maxim which has long proven true: how we pray is how we believe and thus, how we live. But, asks Fr McTeigue, what happens if we are not praying? Or, if our prayer is fundamentally deficient, won't that have a clear and obvious effect on the belief and therefore the way we live? His first example for analysis is the practice of the Saturday vigil Mass: "We’ll start with Saturday, the time of the Vigil Mass. The legal fiction behind this practice is rooted in passing reference to the ancient practice of the observance of sabbath starting at sunset. But what can this mean for people who have no practical observation of the sabbath in mind?" This is a great point. Since I have been a father, I have always tried to make a point...

I thought this was a really good film. It is specifically promoting the Extraordinary Form of the Mass, but it speaks to me of the whole of the faith and Mass especially: As Msgr Charles Pope writes ; Many Catholics do not know of the rich heritage that has to some degree been denied them by modernity. The TLM is the form of the Mass that most of the saints knew. With only minor variations and additions, this form of the liturgy has existed for well over a thousand years. The, Latin, the chants, the eastward orientation, the often-deep silence—all of these reach across the centuries like treasures. A lot of things come and go, but the TLM has stood the test of time; it is a heritage that belongs to us. Moving accounts of discovery of the treasure of Catholic inheritance; something counter cultural- something beautiful - something different - something transcendent. What comes across is the desire to do something beautiful to worship & praise God. The community fosters...

The most recent edition (June 3) of the French publication Famille Chrétienne has a lengthy interview with Cardinal Robert Sarah, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments , part of which is available online (in French only). ++Sarah strikes me as just what we need more of at this time: a holy, prayerful and wise leader. While touching on several topics, the focus of the interview is liturgy and worship. As usual, Cardinal Sarah is both eloquent and direct, qualities that will be familiar to those who have read God or Nothing (Ignatius Press, 2015), the Cardinal's autobiographical interview with French journalist Nicholas Diat. As this weekend's edition of the Catholic Herald notes, Cardinal Sarah has become an authoritative voice due to his prayerful approach and evident love of the liturgy. In this interview, the Cardinal has unequivocally urged all priests to celebrate Mass facing east, saying: "As soon as we r...

Welcome to my reflection on this week's Sunday readings at Mass, where I look at the Scripture we will hear at Mass on Sunday in its historical, social and theological context to see what wisdom can be gleaned. Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. I sincerely hope that this reflection will inspire you, answer some questions you may have, help you to see how fantastic Sacred Scripture is and perhaps begin to share some of my love and passion for the Bible as you begin to comprehend how layered and multi-faceted, and what a carefully considered part of the Mass the readings are. If you want to know how these posts came about, please read my first post in this series here . This Sunday the theme for the readings might be summed up as: The Generous Love of Our Lord The Widow's Mite by João Zeferino da Costa: oil on canvas, 1876 The readings are: First Reading:  1 Kings 17:10-16 Psalm  145:7-10; Response v. 2. Second Reading:  Hebr...

Welcome to my reflection on this week's Sunday readings at Mass, where I look at the Scripture we will hear at Mass on Sunday in its historical, social and theological context to see what wisdom can be gleaned. Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. I sincerely hope that this reflection will inspire you, answer some questions you may have, help you to see how fantastic Sacred Scripture is and perhaps begin to share some of my love and passion for the Bible as you begin to comprehend how layered and multi-faceted, and what a carefully considered part of the Mass the readings are. If you want to know how these posts came about, please read my first post in this series here . This Sunday the theme for the readings might be summed up as: The Lord Who Works Marvels Jesus Heals the Blind Bartimaeus, by Nicolas Poussin, 1650 The readings are: Jeremiah 31:7-9 Psalm: 125; Response: v. 3. Second Reading: Hebrews 5: 1-6. Gospel: Mark 10: 46-52. First, a li...

Does this look boring to you? This is a great piece in the Herald recently which feeds into my post on Youth Ministry . It begins with an honest and accurate appraisal of the situation as we all know it. Confirmation = The Sacrament of exit. My experience is that, although I do my best, the majority of them have already given up on the faith by this point. When we reduce the faith to another noisy "youth" thing (as we see it) we reduce its value to simply another "thing" competing for attention in an already over competitive world. But the faith is valuable because it is truth, all we really need do is have confidence in its majesty and authority and leave the rest to the Holy Spirit. As I said yesterday, if it is authentic, young people will quickly discern that. In the Herald, Pastor Iuventus writes: While the introduction of evening and vigil Masses may have been intended for those who work on Sunday morning, we have lost our sense of Sabbath, of a Day...

Well, obviously, he got it wrong lots in The DaVinci Code , but he did give us all something to talk about again! This week, on the CNA website , Bishop Arthur Serratelli, the bishop of Paterson, New Jersey, uses a fascinating archaeological discovery to show how Pope Francis articulates a fundamental Christian truth when he says: “A Christian is not a monad, off somewhere alone. No, he belongs to a people, to the Church…A Christian without the Church is … not a reality… A Christian without the Church is incomprehensible: It is a thing of the laboratory, an artificial thing, a thing that cannot give life…The Christian is always a woman, a man of the Eucharist”    —Pope Francis, May 15, 2014 homily at Mass at Domus Sanctae Marthae . The news that the remnants of a 3rd century A.D. church have been unearthed at Megiddo, the venue for the New Testament's final battle at the end of the world (Rev 16:16) has demonstrated that Brown's assertion in the DaVinci Code , tha...

This is a great homily from Fr. John Hollowell about the role that music plays in Mass. Mass, he says is not about eliciting an emotional reaction. It isn't just about seeking to make us feel a certain way. This speaks to the 'emotionalism' which is a product of the 'Spirit of Vatican II' attitude: religion should make us 'feel nice'. No. Rubbish. Mass is an encounter with Our LORD and the music at Mass should stir our minds and souls with faith and give praise to Him. If we add music to elicit an emotional response, we hi-jack the Mass and we fail in the mind of the Church, turning the Mass into a commercial enterprise in order to elicit an emotional response. In other words, the act of worship, which should be ordered to God, becomes an act of self adulation, where we become focused on ourselves and our own cleverness. H/T Creative Minority Report

One issue that has interested me for some time is the question of orientation for Mass. I recall clearly hearing stories that in "The Old Days" the priest used to have his back to the people. How crazy was that?!! I vaguely recall, when I delved deeper into why such a bizarre practice should have taken place at all, I was informed that the whole altar used to be blocked off and that's where we get altar rails and bells from. It took me a long while to glean an objective perspective on the practice. Like much that was boarded over with plywood in the sixties, I have learned that a bit of restorative investigation can yield all kinds of spiritual rewards. Perhaps the seminal contemporary work on all this is Ratzinger's  'The Spirit of the Liturgy' , inspired by Romano Guardini's book of the same title. I found it such essential reading because it attempts (and really succeeds) to educate the reader and deepen their understanding and love of the Litu...

Fr. Hugh Thwaites, S.J. I was struck this morning by this quote shared on Facebook by the wonderful Rhos Thomas . She is an inspirational young Catholic who is part of a growing number of young, faithful, traditionalists, who really impress me with their depth of knowledge and commitment. Rhos discovered this article by the much loved and respected priest Fr. Hugh Thwaites S.J. Rhos states: "Fr Thwaites had an amazing gift for explaining ideas in a way which anyone can understand. Please God, I hope I will get to heaven and meet him!"  Here is a particularly beautiful, yet simple explanation from the article: "There is nothing wrong with the new rite. Rome cannot feed her children with poison. But the new rite of Mass does not give us what we need. Michael Davies' analogy is helpful here. If a doctor tells a couple that their child need milk every day, and they give the child only water, the child may not live. There is nothing wrong with water. Bu...

This is a really interesting piece in the National Catholic Register well worth reading, especially for those who are concerned that Pope Francis' liturgical style contrasts somewhat with that of his predecessor.  As I have written previously , Pope Francis is not Pope Benedict, nor could he be. His background is very different and his life experiences have no doubt tempered his essential understanding of the efficacious nature of a life lived in relationship with Jesus Christ. The spiritual backdrop of South America is fascinating, and something I know precious little about (although I am reading about it now). Certainly the faith is vibrant and lived out with real integrity, although it perhaps could be said that it faces different challenges. In Europe and the West, we might consider apathy and atheism the great challenge of our time, whereas in South America, there is an undeniable social dimension, along with the challenge wrought by a vibrant and growing evangelical move...