Traditional Liturgical Conference in August

Though too late for my planning, I just found this announcement of an upcoming traditional liturgical conference especially catering to priests. Looks very good! Hope they do it next year too. This year's conference in Herzogenrath, Germany is Cologne's 14th such conference.

Did you know that there is a Traditional (Extraordinary Form) Trappist Monastery, also in Germany? Check it out. They went back to their (our) traditional form with the Motu Proprio! God bless them. Would that some American Trappists might get the same idea.

It is a wonder to me and a liturgical and monastic tragedy that they all just threw away their Latin liturgical treasures with Concilium, against the express directives of Vatican II! Perhaps some of the dying monasteries in America might reconsider that mistake and recover this Catholic monastic patrimony-- and thereby get many young and zealous vocations with this timely reform.

Will the Trappists of the "stricter" observance (viz. more loyal to the liturgical past and to the present Magisterium of the Holy Father Benedict) please stand up!!!

Meanwhile, it looks like we need to brush up on our "Deutsches sprache!"

Kreuz.net mentioned the upcoming conference in June.

Passing Beauty

Beauty passes,
Virtue stays.


I recently came across this German proverb (Shonheit vergeht, Tugend besteht.): which is a source of consolation for my middle age.

May it be so for yours,--and the glory for old age!

Saint Hedwig's: The Real Berlin Cathedral

The dramatic picture in my previous post is not the Catholic Cathedral but an Evangelical (Protestant) parish church, though it is called "The Berlin Cathedral."

Here is a picture of the Catholic Cathedral of Berlin in it's reconstructed present, post-War, form.

The dome looks like a bomb shelter. Probably not a bad idea after what happened to the first one-- just in case.

First Official German Visit by The German Pontiff

In Light of the World (p. 117) the Holy Father admitted that "...I have not yet visited Germany officially... [T]he capital, too, has to be visited at some point. If the Lord grants me the strength, I would be very happy to visit Germany again."

Today the Vatican Information Service posted the schedule for the visit to take place 22-25 September 2011. Looks like some massive Masses are planned for the visit: e.g. a Berlin Olympic Stadium Mass and a closing Mass at an airport.

Spanish Sermonic Superiority

During his student days at Columbia (early 1940's), Thomas Merton went to Cuba and noted the great poetical adeptness of the Spanish language for preaching. He knew the language from his youth, having been born in Prades, a French border town in the foothills of the Pyrenees, and later spending some of his grade school years in France. He was fluent in English, French, Italian and Spanish, and very good at Latin.

"Often I left one church and went to hear another Mass in another church, especially if the day happened to be Sunday, and I would listen to the harmonious sermons of the Spanish priests, the very grammar of which was full of dignity and mysticism and courtesy. After Latin, it seems to me there is no language so fitted for prayer and for talk about God as Spanish: for it is a language at once strong and supple, it has its sharpness, it has the quality of steel in it, which gives it the accuracy that true mysticism needs, and yet it is soft, too, and gentle and pliant, which devotion needs, and it is courteous and suppliant and courtly, and it lends itself surprisingly little to sentimentality. It has some of the intellectuality of French but not the coldness that intellectuality gets in French: and it never overflows into the feminine melodies of Italian. Spanish is never a weak language, never sloppy, even on the lips of a woman."

"The fact that while all this was going on in the pulpit, there would be Cubans ringing bells and yelling lottery numbers outside in the street seemed to make no difference. For a people that is supposed to be excitable, the Cubans have a phenomenal amount of patience with all the things that get on American nerves and drive people crazy, like persistent and strident noise. But for my own part, I did not mind any of that any more than the natives did." The Seven Storey Mountain , 280

Requiem Mass for Archduke Otto Von Habsburg

Here is some footage from today's Requiem Mass for the last crown prince of the Habsburg empire , the penultimate surviving son of Blessed Karl Von Habsburg.

The last surviving son of the holy Emperor is the Archduke Felix. The current head of the house of Habsburg is the successor of Prince Otto and his eldest son Karl Von Habsburg: Prince Imperial and Archduke of Austria; Prince Royal of Hungary and Bohemia

Two observations from the funeral video. Notice the traditional Roman style vestments in BLACK for the funeral! And also notice that cardinal Shonborn, the main celebrant of the concelebrated Mass, distributes communion to the congregation kneeling at the communion rail!

Are these privileges reserved for royal funerals or are they not part of our common Catholic heritage to be used far and wide!

Primacy of Gregorian Chant

This past April, for this year's Confirmation Mass, the bishop forbade the pastor of the parish from including hymns or chants in Latin. He said: "no Latin." And, unfortunately, the pastor obeyed him, which he had no obligation to do since the bishop is clearly contradicting the liturgical laws of the Roman Catholic liturgy.

Not only is Latin chant allowed, it is highly preferred for any and all Masses, especially the ones with the bishop, especially even cathedral Masses!!! Would that the bishops would get in line with the laws of holy mother Church regarding the liturgy! It would make our worship more sublime and our obedience to our bishops less perplexing! Thank God for His Holiness the Bishop of Rome who is doing his part in fidelity to the Latinitas of our liturgy.

"The Church recognizes Gregorian chant as being specially suited to the Roman liturgy. Therefore, other things being equal, it should be given pride of place in liturgical services."

Sacrosanctum Concilium, 116.

In the excellent autobiography on his conversion and priestly/monastic vocation, The Seven Storey Mountain, Thomas Merton (who nevertheless later in life went off to dubious doctrines and practices) mentions the sublimity of Gregorian chant and its timeless profundity in a couple of eloquent passages.

"But the cold stones of the Abbey church ring with a chant that glows with living flame, with clean, profound desire. It is an austere warmth, the warmth of Gregorian chant. It is deep beyond ordinary emotion, and that is one reason why you never get tired of it. It never wears you out by making a lot of cheap demands on your sensibilities. Instead of drawing you out into the open field of feelings where your enemies, the devil and your own imagination and the inherent vulgarity of your own corrupted nature can get at you with their blades and cut you to pieces, it draws you within, where you are lulled in peace and recollection and where you find God.

"You rest in Him, and He heals you with His secret wisdom.

"That first evening in choir I tried to sing my first few notes of Gregorian chant with the worst cold I had ever had in my life...

"It was the second vespers of St. Lucy and we chanted the psalms of the Commune virginum, but after that the capitulum was of the second Sunday of Advent, and presently the cantor intoned the lovely Advent hymn, Conditor Alme Siderum.

"What measure and balance and strength there is in the simplicity of that hymn! Its structure is mighty with a perfection that despises the effects of the most grandiloquent secular music--and says more that Bach without even exhausting the whole range of one octave. That evening I saw how the measured tone took the old words of St. Ambrose and infused into them even more strength and suppleness and conviction and meaning than they already had and made them flower before God in beauty and in fire, flower along the stones and vanish in the darkness of the vaulted ceiling. And their echo died and left ours souls full of peace and grace.

"When we began the chant the Magnificat I almost wept..." 379-380

He speaks of the Holy Saturday triple "alleluia" and the "Easter invitatory that is nothing short of gorgeous in its exultation."

"How mighty they are, those hymns and those antiphons of the Easter office! Gregorian chant that should, by rights, be monotonous, because it has absolutely none of the tricks and resources of modern music, is full of a variety infinitely rich because it is subtle and spiritual and deep, and lies rooted far beyond the shallow level of virtuosity and 'technique,' even in the abysses of the spirit, and of the human soul. Those Easter 'alleluias,' without leaving the narrow range prescribed by the eight Gregorian modes, have discovered color and warmth and meaning and gladness that no other music possesses. Like everything else Cistercian--like the monks themselves, these antiphons, by submitting to the rigor of a Rule that would seem to destroy individuality, have actually acquired a character that is unique, unparalleled." 401

It seems to me that there are no Trappist monasteries of men in America that do the Gregorian Chant so exalted by Merton! Why not a traditional Trappist monastery in America? I suppose it would be very attractive. Take one of the existing monasteries and just turn back to pre-1962. It probably would be relatively easy. Many of them perhaps still have the old books and the old monks who remember how to use them. With some traditionalist younger vocations it would probably make for a wonderful combination and a great success. I am thinking in particular of Mepkin Abbey in Moncks Corner South Carolina which has had a significant role in my life.

Spousal School of Love

In the West you marry the person you love.
In India you love the person you marry. --Gandhi

This thought was triggered by that moving central scene of "Fiddler on the Roof" where the couple of twenty five years (from a Russian Jewish pre-arranged marriage) considers the maturation of their love.

Would that we of the Christian civilization saved love for marriage and learned to love in marriage.

Atheist Logic

A "belief" indeed!

Takes great faith,

Greater faith than believing in God!

To believe something

Completely bereft of meaning,

And for no apparent purpose

Except to contradict God

And the immense mass

Of believing humanity!

Hence "A - Theism"

Anti-God

Defined by

Opposition!

Nothing positive here!

Very similar,

in that respect, to

Judaism,

Mohammedanism,

Protestantism.

Simply,

Anti-Catholic

Anti-Christ

Anti-God

Blind

Violent

Protest.

That is the only way

It makes sense!

Diabolical sense!

Revolutionaries of confusion

And dissension.

Avowed

Catholic Killers!

Woodstock + Satanism = Hellfest

Speaking of the opposition, check out the fastest growing and most popular international heavy metal orgy: Hellfest.

The great irony is that many people who worship the devil also claim to be atheists or people who believe in the absolute rule of reason. Reason Worship is Satanism!

Freemasonry is institutional irreligion par excellence. It is the institutional form of the religion for those who hate religion (by which they mostly mean the Catholic religion: i.e. True Religion!). Their greatest ally? Darkness! Satan!

Indeed, one of the most conclusive proofs for the truth of Catholicism is the untiring (perpetually unsuccessful) mission of those who claim to believe in nothing to attack, malign and attempt to destroy her. They will unscrupulously ally with any power to try to destroy the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, especially the power of Hell.

Christ Himself promised: "The gates of Hell shall not prevail against Her (the Holy Church built upon the Papacy: Peter).

"Simon Peter answered and said, 'Thou art the Christ (Messiah), the Son of the living God.'  Then Jesus answered and said, 'Blessed art thou, Simon Bar Jona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to thee, but my Father in heaven.  And I say to thee, thou art Peter (Petrus), and upon this rock (petram) I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.  And I will give thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven'"  Matthew 16:16-19

If you want esoteric ecstatic music try gregorian chant.  For the greatest supernatural festival go to a Traditional Mass (in Latin, especially a sung Mass).  As a matter of fact, any of the ancient rituals of the Church will do.  Here are a couple of samples.  The first is the Salve Regina, a very common Catholic Marian antiphon in a very ornate setting (that of the Templars).

The next one is an Eastern sample.  Enjoy.

Reason Worship

O.K. you want us to measure out for you Whom is entirely Immeasurable!

Well, the world is immeasurable, time is immeasurable, no one can show you the absolute beginning or the absolute end or perfect love, for that matter.

So don't believe in the world or in time or in love.

"Scientific" proof is not the only type of evidence.

FYI Thunderfoot is very articulate, very popular and apparently very fair. But, again, reason worship, worship of self. He should apply himself equally to indicating the limits of the human intellect.

The Thinking Atheist

I am including a website from the opposition for two reasons.

1) In order to occasionally hear the objections to our religious tenets, to see if there is anything respectable in their arguments and that needs to be answered by us.

2) To show how religiously oriented these men are. Their content is highly religious, which buttresses my thesis that atheists are really gnostic and not atheistic at all. They worship the god of reason, honor, money, pleasure--ultimately--the Self.

They worship the self and/or humanity, the earth, anything except the one true living and personal God: Christ our blessed Lord.

The Thinking Atheist

Sin is Radical Denial

"Jesus revealed that God loves life and wants to deliver it from every denial, even to the point of rescuing it from that radical denial which is spiritual evil, sin, a poisonous root that contaminates all things."

Pope's Address to World of Culture in Venice
"The Glory of God Is the Full Health of Man"
VATICAN CITY, MAY 21, 2011

Your Heart Was Made For God

The human heart is a container which is content specific. It can only be filled with love--true love--which is Divine love. Only the love of Jesus can satisfy your heart because only He can really enter into it, only if and only insofar as you open yourself to Him.

Grace Builds on Nature

Having watched "The Philadelphia Story" (1940) this morning with close attention (it being shown on TCM with a line of films in honor of James Stewart's birthday) I came up with a principle of holiness which captures the heart of that story:

YOU MUST BE A MAN IN ORDER TO BE A SAINT!

This is an instance of the general philosophical principle: grace builds on nature.


His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI made a similar point in a Wednesday Audience on the saints saying that saints do not come ready made from heaven. Saints are made on the earth and in homes and in neighborhoods and at school and at work, etc. They are sinners who recognize and confess their failures and ever strive for perfection, with the help of God. Here is the relevant quote.

"...Paul and Barnabas, disagreed at the beginning of the second missionary journey because Barnabas was determined to take with them as a companion John called Mark, whereas Paul was against it, since the young man had deserted them during their previous journey (cf. Acts 13:13;15:36-40).

"Hence there are also disputes, disagreements and controversies among saints. And I find this very comforting, because we see that the saints have not 'fallen from Heaven'. They are people like us, who also have complicated problems.

"Holiness does not consist in never having erred or sinned. Holiness increases the capacity for conversion, for repentance, for willingness to start again and, especially, for reconciliation and forgiveness." (Wednesday Audience 31 January 2007)

That is exactly what happened at the end of the movie.

May God reward his servant Mr. James Stewart for his wonderful and exemplary artistic nobility as a first class Hollywood star! May he have a great reward in heaven!

This same point about holiness is in Spe Salvi, 46

"For the great majority of people--we may suppose--there remains in the depths of their being an ultimate interior openness to truth, to love, to God. In the concrete choices of life, however, it is covered over by ever new compromises with evil--much filth covers purity, but the thirst for purity remains and it still constantly re-emerges from all that is base and remains present in the soul..."

He concludes by speaking of a fundamental human need, therefore, for...Purgatory! Everyone needs purification in order to become a saint.

Saint Josemaria Escriva made the same point saying: "Holiness consists in beginning again!"

BBC SACRED MUSIC SERIES

You will love the superb cinematography of great Catholic architecture in these hour-long documentaries exploring the development of the art of sacred music. Here are the first two of the four in the series.

Part 1: The Gothic Revolution

Part 2: Palestrina and the Popes

Saint Thomas' "Unparalleled" Treatise on the Life of Christ

When our incisive Pontiff repeats a point it is worth studying that point. He has recently repeatedly referred to and superlatively praised Saint Thomas Aquinas' treatment of the life of Christ in the Summa.

"In the third part of the Summa, Saint Thomas writes pages as yet unparalleled on the mystery of the Incarnation and Passion of Jesus..." (Wednesday Audience [the last of three audiences on Aquinas] 23 June 2010).

He compares what he is attempting with Jesus of Nazareth to what the Angelic Doctor did:
"[My intention can be compared] with the theological treatise on the mysteries of the life of Jesus, presented in its classic form by Saint Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologica (S. Th. III, qq. 27-59). While my book has many points of contact with this treatise, it is nevertheless situated in a different historical and spiritual context, and in that sense it also has a different inner objective that determines the structure of the text in essential ways." (Jesus of Nazareth: Part Two, Intro., xvi)

Here the Holy Father also alludes to the different theological questions of our age, which come from a historically critical and materialistic mentality, which he must answer in Jesus of Nazareth.

Given Pope Benedict's use and praise of the same, it seems to me that it should be very advantageous to take an in-depth look at that "unparalleled" part of the Summa and use it in our catechesis and preaching.

The Bread of God: Proof of God in the Flesh

Today's Mass gospel text is John 6:35-40.

"I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst." v. 35

Christ proves that He is food for the soul by making Himself apparent bodily food--taking the form of bread and wine: "My flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed." v. 56 The accidents of bread and wine are indeed present with all of their nutritive qualities while being really and substantially the Flesh and Blood of Christ. That is why He calls it "the Bread of God."v.33 It has all of the physical properties of bread but is really and essentially the incarnated God Himself, Christ, and only apparently bread.

This apparent food is a sign of the true spiritual food which is Christ Himself, personally present and given, for the person (body and soul) of the believer who worthily receives the Lord sacramentally. The Eucharist is God's Flesh and Blood, the living Person of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Catholic Environmentalism Begins with the Human Person: Human Ecology

The first step toward a correct relationship with the world around us is the recognition by humans of their status as created beings. Man is not God; he is His image. For this reason he must seek to be more sensitive to the presence of God in his surroundings. In all creatures, and especially in human beings, there is an epiphany, or manifestation, of God.

The human being will be capable of respecting other creatures only if he keeps the full meaning of life in his own heart. Otherwise he will come to despise himself and his surroundings, and to disrespect the environment, the creation, in which he lives. For this reason, the first ecology to be defended is "human ecology."

This is to say that, without a clear defence of human life from conception until natural death; without a defence of the family founded on marriage between a man and a woman; without an authentic defence of those excluded and marginalized by society, not overlooking, in this context, those who have lost everything in natural calamities, we will never be able to speak of authentic protection of the environment.

(Excerpts from 9 March Message of Pope Benedict XVI to Archbishop Geraldo Lyrio Rocha of Mariana, president of the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil; taken from front page of The Wanderer 31 March 2011 Issue)

The Decalogue is Essential for Democracy

In his chapter "Modern Democracy" of Memory and Identity Pope Blessed John Paul II shows that freedom and morality go together saying that "...a State of law accomplishes the purpose of every democracy: that of forming a society of free citizens who jointly pursue the common good." p.132

"...Essentially, the Law [of Israel] consisted of the Decalogue: the ten commandments, the ten principles of conduct, without which no human community, no nation, not even the international community, can function...

"...The divine law of the Decalogue is also binding, as natural law, for those who no not accept Revelation: do not kill, do not steal, do not bear false witness, honor your father and your mother...Each of these commands from the Sinai code seeks to defend a fundamental good of human and social life. If such a law is placed in doubt, ordered human society becomes impossible and mans's moral existence is put at risk. Moses is not the author of the tablets of the Commandments which he brought down from the mountain. Rather, he is the servant and the spokesman of the Law given to him by God on Sinai." p. 133

This text reminded me of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI's historic address at the Synagogue of Rome last year in which he showed the fundamental agreement between Jewish and Catholic moral teachings. Here is the relevant text.

5. Many lessons may be learnt from our common heritage derived from the Law and the Prophets. I would like to recall some of them: first of all, the solidarity which binds the Church to the Jewish people "at the level of their spiritual identity", which offers Christians the opportunity to promote "a renewed respect for the Jewish interpretation of the Old Testament" (cf. Pontifical Biblical Commission, The Jewish people and their Sacred Scriptures in the Christian Bible, 2001, pp. 12 and 55); the centrality of the Decalogue as a common ethical message of permanent value for Israel, for the Church, for non-believers and for all of humanity; the task of preparing or ushering in the Kingdom of the Most High in the "care for creation" entrusted by God to man for him to cultivate and to care for responsibly (cf. Gen 2: 15).

6. In particular, the Decalogue the "Ten Words" or Ten Commandments (cf. Ex 20: 1-17; Dt 5: 1-21) which comes from the Torah of Moses, is a shining light for ethical principles, hope and dialogue, a guiding star of faith and morals for the people of God, and it also enlightens and guides the path of Christians. It constitutes a beacon and a norm of life in justice and love, a "great ethical code" for all humanity. The "Ten Commandments" shed light on good and evil, on truth and falsehood, on justice and injustice, and they match the criteria of every human person's right conscience. Jesus himself recalled this frequently, underlining the need for active commitment in living the way of the Commandments: "If you wish to enter into life, observe the Commandments" (Mt 19: 17). From this perspective, there are several possible areas of cooperation and witness. I would like to recall three that are especially important for our time.

The "Ten Commandments" require that we recognize the one Lord, against the temptation to construct other idols, to make golden calves. In our world there are many who do not know God or who consider him superfluous, without relevance for their lives; hence, other new gods have been fabricated to whom man bows down. Reawakening in our society openness to the transcendent dimension, witnessing to the one God, is a precious service which Jews and Christians can and must offer together.

The "Ten Commandments" call us to respect life and to protect it against every injustice and abuse, recognizing the worth of each human person, created in the image and likeness of God. How often, in every part of the world, near and far, the dignity, the freedom and the rights of human beings are trampled upon! Bearing witness together to the supreme value of life against all selfishness, is an important contribution to a new world where justice and peace reign, a world marked by that "shalom" which the lawgivers, the prophets and the sages of Israel longed to see.

The "Ten Commandments" call us to preserve and to promote the sanctity of the family, in which the personal and reciprocal, faithful and definitive "Yes" of man and woman makes room for the future, for the authentic humanity of each, and makes them open, at the same time, to the gift of new life. To witness that the family continues to be the essential cell of society and the basic environment in which human virtues are learned and practised is a precious service offered in the construction of a world with a more human face.

7. As Moses taught in the Shema (cf. Dt 6: 5; Lev 19: 34) and as Jesus reaffirms in the Gospel (cf. Mk 12: 19-31), all of the Commandments are summed up in the love of God and loving-kindness towards one's neighbour. This Rule urges Jews and Christians to exercise, in our time, a special generosity towards the poor, towards women and children, strangers, the sick, the weak and the needy. In the Jewish tradition there is a wonderful saying of the Fathers of Israel: "Simon the Just often said: The world is founded on three things: the Torah, worship, and acts of mercy" (Avoth 1: 2). In exercising justice and mercy, Jews and Christians are called to announce and to bear witness to the coming Kingdom of the Most High, for which we pray and work in hope each day.

8. On this path we can walk together, aware of the differences that exist between us, but also aware of the fact that when we succeed in uniting our hearts and our hands in response to the Lord's call, his light comes closer and shines on all the peoples of the world. The progress made in the last forty years by the International Committee for Catholic-Jewish Relations and, in more recent years, by the Mixed Commission of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel and of the Holy See, is a sign of our common will to continue an open and sincere dialogue. Tomorrow here in Rome, in fact, the Mixed Commission will hold its ninth meeting, on "Catholic and Jewish Teaching on Creation and the Environment"; we wish them a profitable dialogue on such a timely and important theme.

9. Christians and Jews share to a great extent a common spiritual patrimony, they pray to the same Lord, they have the same roots, and yet they often remain unknown to each other. It is our duty, in response to God's call, to strive to keep open the space for dialogue, for reciprocal respect, for growth in friendship, for a common witness in the face of the challenges of our time, which invite us to cooperate for the good of humanity in this world created by God, the Omnipotent and Merciful...