A corporal work of mercy.

A corporal work of mercy.
Click on photo for this corporal work of mercy!

Wednesday 27 July 2011

Walking Pilgrimage to Our Lady of the Cape

**Announcing**



A 3-day Walking Pilgrimage to the shrine of Our Lady of the Cape, Quebec
Saturday 3rd to Monday 5th September 2011
(An ‘Una-Voce Toronto’ sponsored event)
Transportation from Toronto to Pilgrimage
Bus Departs Toronto at 12:00 noon on Friday September 2nd. Bus departs Shrine for
Toronto at 3pm on Monday 5th.
Transportation Cost: ~$85 Pilgrimage Registration Cost: $75
More Information:
Patrick: Email: mcloughlin.patrick (at) gmail (dot) com
Ken: Email: ken.bradley (at) weighhouse (dot)com


Marie Reine du Canada, (click here for their Facebook event page) a lay-led apostolate of St. Clement Parish, Ottawa, organizes the annual three-day 100 km pilgrimage on foot from Saint-Joseph-de-Lanoraie to Notre-Dame-du-Cap shrine at Cap-de-la-Madeleine, Que. It is 3 days of prayer, Penance, Fraternal Charity and many graces. A pilgrimage is a journey made to a holy place or shrine for the sanctification of the pilgrim; with the purpose of venerating a saint or martyr associated with the site; to pray to God; to ask for supernatural aid; to give thanks for favours received; or to discharge a religious obligation. The arduous journey, offered joyfully to God, represents our spiritual pilgrimage to the Heavenly City.

Mass is celebrated each day of the pilgrimage in the Extraordinary Form of the Latin Rite, the traditional liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church. The Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, has expressed the desire that the Tridentine Latin Mass according to the 1962 Missal of Blessed Pope John XIII should flourish and continue to enrich our spiritual lives, particularly among the young. Our chaplains are priests of the Fraternity of St. Peter, canonically established by Pope John Paul II in 1988.

While walking each day, we pray the Rosary (in French and Latin) and Sing from a pilgrimage program book provided to each pilgrim. In late evening we pray Compline with the priests. The churches we visit along the route are truly spectacular by Canadian standards. Built in the 19th and early 20th century, they show the vibrancy of the faith that once was a large part of Quebec's identity. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is celebrated in parish churches along the route -- in Berthierville, Yamachiche, and in the historic Small Shrine of Our Lady of the Cape at Cap de la Madeleine -- with the blessing of the Bishops of Joliette and of Trois-Rivieres, and the local parish priests. Two priests are normally available to hear confessions in French and English, throughout the pilgrimage, en route, in camp or before mass.
http://www.marie-reine.ca/registration.html

What to Bring

1. Well-used, broken-in footwear is recommended. It's a good idea to double up on socks to reduce the likelihood of blisters; that's what the guy at the front does.
2. Very basic (but good) meals are provided. They consist of bread with jam etc. and coffee or hot chocolate at breakfast; bread and water at lunch; the same at dinner, plus hot soup. It is strongly recommended to bring your own food as well, trail mix, fruit, granola bars and other energy food to fill the gap and share with others. Do not bring food that requires heating; as there are no cooking facilities.

3. Ample bottled water is provided but you may wish to bring a few juice boxes.
4. Bring an insulated mug or thermos to hold hot beverages in the morning and soup in the evening.
5. Your heavy luggage, such as tents, sleeping bags, and duffel bags with clothing, will be moved by a truck driven by the Worker Pilgrims of the St. Joseph Chapter.
6. Some pilgrims like to have a day pack (small backpack) in which to carry sunscreen, a hat, a poncho or rain-jacket, and an extra bottle of water. It should be as light as possible since you will carry it all day.
7. The only banners permitted are those with a patron saint or parish symbol. No slogans, signs, or 'organizational' banners are allowed.
8. You will be provided with a booklet containing the Mass with Propers for the three days. No need to bring a Missal.
9. The spirit of pilgrimage: Your Chapter will be your "family" for the three-day walk.

Each pilgrim marches, sings and prays with as much fortitude as personal stamina will allow, maintaining appropriate decorum and deportment throughout. In the spirit of sacrifice and of charity you are urged to be attentive to your fellow pilgrims, assisting and encouraging those who are suffering, discouraged or more weary than yourself.

Tuesday 26 July 2011

Priest attacked, guilty of celebrating the Latin Mass

Breaking from Rorate:


Priest attacked, guilty of celebrating the Latin Mass
...
Tue, 26/07/2011 - 15:24


"You have been tough, but we will smash your head. Signed, Your friend Satan". That was one of several threatening messages sent to Father Hernán García Pardo, parish priest of San Michele, in Ronta [Mugello region of the Province of Florence, Tuscany]. His fault [was] that of celebrating the Latin Mass, liberalized by Benedict XVI in September 2007.


The warnings, which had been recurrent for some time, had not made the priest, who despite everything has continued to say Mass according to the ancient rite, give up. The last chapter [took place] last Wednesday, when he was beaten up by a 'faithful' in the town's rectory in the presence of his aged mother. The beating led to bruising on his back; having been sent to the emergency room of Borgo San Lorenzo, he was medicated.


The news item was published today in the Giornale della Toscana; the accusations made against Father Hernán are those of scattering the flock; above all, he is not forgiven for distributing communion in the mouth [to the] kneeling [faithful], instead of on the hand, in the same manner as Benedict XVI. For others, the Italian-Argentine priest has only brought back some sacred austerity to the parish, excluding guitars from the functions and bringing back to within the walls of the church the ancient Gregorian chant. ...
[Source: Il sito di Firenze]
[Other sources: Libero News, La Nazione; tip: Secretum meum mihi.]

Monday 25 July 2011

The Hands of the Laity

With a tip to Rorate for this quote:

"And when they came to the floor of Nachon, Oza put forth his hand to the ark of God, and took hold of it: because the oxen kicked and made it lean aside. And the indignation of the Lord was enkindled against Oza, and he struck him for his rashness: and he died there before the ark of God." --2 Samuel 6: 6-7 Douay-Rheims

Quaeritur:

I: If there are two priests present distributing Holy Communion, why are two Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion necessary on a Saturday when there are less than 70 people present?

II: Why am I still shocked when whilst the priest is occupied as he should be in the Confessional, a woman feels it simply okay to attend to the Tabernacle to retrieve Consecrated Hosts for the sick?

How do we end this?

Discuss.

Saturday 16 July 2011

Two Liturgical Reads

From The Heresy of Formlessness...

"I am firmly convinced... that vernacular hymns have played perhaps a significant part in the collapse of the liturgy. Just consider what resulted in the flowering of hymns: Luther's Reformation was a singing movement,and the hymn expressed the beliefs of the Reformers. Vernacular hymns replaced the liturgy, as they were designed to do; they were filled with the combative spirit of those dismal times and were meant to fortify the partisans. People singing a catchy melody together at the top of their voices created a sense of community, as all soldiers, clubs, and politicians know. The Catholic Counter-Reformation felt the demagogic power of these hymns. People so enjoyed singing; it was so easy to influence their emotions using pleasing tunes with verse repetition. In the liturgy of the Mass, however, there was no place for hymns. The liturgy has no gaps; it is one single great canticle; where it prescribes silence or the whisper, that is, where the mystery is covered with an acoustic veil,as it were, any hymn would be out of the question. The hymn has a beginning and an end; it is embedded in speech. But the leiturgos of Holy Mass does not actually speak at all; his speaking is a singing, because he has put on the "new man", because, in the sacred space of the liturgy, he is a companion of angels. In the liturgy, singing is an elevation and transfiguration of speech, and, as such, it is a sign of the transfiguration of the body that awaits those who are risen. The hymn's numerical aesthetics-- hymn 1, hymn 2, hymn 3-- is totally alien and irreconcilable in the world if the liturgy. In services that are governed by vernacular hymns, the believer is constantly being transported into new aesthetic worlds. He changes from one style to another and has to deal with highly subjective poetry of the most varied levels. He is moved and stirred-- but not by the thing itself, liturgy: he is moved and stirred by the expressed sentiments of the commentary upon it. By contrast, the bond that Gregorian chant weaves between the liturgical action and song is so close that it is impossible to separate form and content. The processional chants that accompany liturgical processions (the Introit, Gradual, Offertory, and Communion), the responsories of the Ordinary of the Mass that interweave the prayers of the priest and The laity, and the reciting tone of the readings and orations-- all these create a ladder of liturgical expression on which the movements, actions, and the content of the prayers are brought into a perfect harmony. This language is unique to the Catholic liturgy and expresses it's inner nature, for this liturgy is not primarily worship, meditation, contemplation, instruction, but positive action. It's formulae effect a deed. The liturgy's complete, closed form has the purpose of making present the personal and bodily action of Jesus Christ. The prayers it contains are a preparation for sacrifice, not explanations for the benefit of the congregation; nor are they a kind of "warming up" of the latter. In Protestantism, vernacular hymns came in as a result of the abolition of the Sacrifice of the Mass; they were ideally suited to be a continuation of the sermon. Through singing, the assembled community found its way back from the doubting loneliness of the workday to the collective security of Sunday-- a security, be it noted, that arose from the mutual exhortation to remain firm in faith, not from witnessing the objective, divine act of sacrifice."

[Mosebach, Martin. The Heresy of Formlessness. Trans. by G. Harrison. Ignatius, 2006. (p.40-42)]

And this incredible free on line book by Francis Koerber with live hyperlinks.

What Should We Be Singing Now?

Now, how do we get this to happen in our parishes?

What do you think you could or should do to facilitate what the Church really desires in liturgical worship?

Friday 8 July 2011

Kneeling.

"It may well be that kneeling is alien to modern culture–insofar as it is a culture, for this culture has turned away from the faith and no longer knows the One before whom kneeling is the right, indeed the intrinsically necessary gesture. The man who learns to believe learns also to kneel, and a faith or a liturgy no longer familiar with kneeling would be sick at the core. Where it has been lost, kneeling must be rediscovered, so that, in our prayer, we remain in fellowship with the apostles and martyrs, in fellowship with the whole cosmos, indeed in union with Jesus Christ Himself."

Pope Benedict XVI writing in the Spirit of the Liturgy.

Sunday 3 July 2011

Children Smarter than Canadian Liturgical Experts, in other news, Man bites dog...

For once, I have nothing to say...



The combox is open for the Ontario Liturgical Conference, the National Council of Liturgical Music, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops and just plain old dumb Canadian Catholics who find the above tooooooooo haaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrd.

Aw, come on; you knew I couldn't really say "nothing!"

Saturday 2 July 2011

Corpus Christi to return to Thursday?

Antonio Cardinal Cañizares Llovera is the Prefect for the Congregation of Divine Worship and the Sacraments. When he signs a document on liturgy and gives an instruction, it is with the approval of the Pope and we must obey; when he opines, as in this case, we need to listen and observe that where we are going. Enough of this lazy Catholic idea of transferred feasts to Sunday. Let's not forget Ascension THURSDAY and Epiphany on JANUARY 6 and the Octave of Pentecost and Gesima Sundays. These could be returned to the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite (of which he is speaking, with little trouble. There are already Mass texts in the Missal for the three Sundays which these feasts impose. The Octave of Pentecost and Gesima Sundays would require a little more adjustment to the Propers.

This from Zenit:

Liturgy Official Backs Return of Corpus Christi to Thursday

Notes Desire That Christians Proclaim Christ's Presence

VATICAN CITY, JUNE 28, 2011 (Zenit.org).- The prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments says he thinks the feast of Corpus Christi should be returned to its traditional Thursday celebration, to better highlight the link with Holy Thursday and show how Christ is the center of everything.

Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera spoke to Vatican Radio about the feast, celebrated in many countries last Sunday, but traditionally marked on the Thursday before, as it still is in Rome.

"I think that to exalt the feast of Corpus Christi on its own, separate from Sunday, would be a very joyful and very hopeful reality, which would mean saying to all people in mid week that Christ is truly the center of everything," he said.

Corpus Christi is lived as an obligatory day to attend Mass in countries where it is celebrated on Thursday, such as Mexico.

In countries where the feast is moved to the Sunday following, the celebration is combined with normal weekend Masses.

Shining more than the sun

Cardinal Canizares proposed that if the feast is lived intensely, even if on Sunday, the time will not be far off when "Corpus Christi will be celebrated again on Thursday, as it was historically, which evokes, in some way, Maundy Thursday."

The 65-year-old Spanish cardinal also referred to an adage that reflects the popular tradition in Spain of celebrating the feast of the Eucharist: "There are three Thursdays in the year that shine more than the sun: Corpus Christi, Maundy Thursday and Ascension Thursday."

In the majority of Spanish cities today the feast of Corpus Christi is celebrated on Sunday; the preceding Thursday is a working day.

However, some local churches, such as Toledo, Seville and Granada celebrated the feast on Thursday.

"My personal wish has been for a long time that we return to Corpus Christi Thursday," said the former archbishop of Toledo and primate of Spain.

For the cardinal, this feast means "to recognize that God is here." To go out in procession through the streets with the Most Holy Sacrament is an invitation to adore the Lord, a public confession of faith in him and an acknowledgment that to go "with the Lord is what truly matters for the renewal and transformation of society."

"It is a day of very great joy, especially in Spain," he recalled. The cardinal noted his hope that all Christians would proclaim "that Christ is present in the Eucharist, that Christ is with us."

Friday 1 July 2011

Over 500 in Toronto at Latin Mass for Sacred Heart!

In the presence of Bishop John Boissonneau, Auxiliary Bishop of Toronto over 500 people attended a Missa Solemnis for the Feast of the Sacred Heart in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite at St. Peter's Catholic Church on Bathurst Street in downtown Toronto.

Last week for Corpus Christi over 225.

I'd say we're making some progress.

Next: St. Mary Immaculate in Richmond Hill on the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary on August 15.

Don't forget, every Sunday at The Oratory Church of St. Vincent de Paul, St. Theresa Shrine (moving in September to St. Lawrence the Martyr and St. Patrick's in Schomberg.

Eleven hundred year old Gloria is "too hard" for you!

If the oldest known music for the Gloria is simply "too hard" for our modern, educated selves what on earth did they before the 900's since Guido Aretinus de Arezzo was born in 995. When this monk first devised a method of writing down music on lines and spaces, this Gloria, the first written down by him was already being sung!

But you, dear reader, dear Canadian Catholic are too dumbed down by the Ontario Liturgical Music Conference, the National Council of Liturgical Music, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, disgraced Bishop Lahey's CBWIII, OCP, GIA, Haughen-Hass, St. Louis Jesuits and others to sing something which was written so long ago we only know that it is 1,100 years old because that is when quill was put to parchment.

You dear reader, dear Canadian Catholic are just too, too dumb and will find it much, much "too haaaaarrrrrd" to sing something sung by your Catholic ancestors so long ago that the Chinese had not yet invented gun powder and movable type.

The Sung Mass for the corrected translation of the Third Typical Edition of the Roman Missal has been beautifully prepared by ICEL, the International Commission for English in the Liturgy; they've clearly made amends for their work over 40 years ago! This is all to be published in every Missal, altar and pew for priest and people, as appropriate!

This has been mandated for the English speaking countries in each Missal and it is to be available in each hymn book--the basic Chant Mass setting. They have brilliantly utilised the Gloria from what is now known as Mass XV, Missa Dominator Deus which is in both the Liber Usualis for the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite and the 1974 Graduale Romanum and its later, 2000 Gregorian Missal for the Sung Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite.

The "numbers" Mass VIII, Mass XV, etc. date from the post Trent period and these Masses were not necessarily composed as a unit. The names, except in the case of the 16th century Missa de Angelis, the beautiful but least, Gregorian, come from the Kyrie tropes that were eliminated with the liturgical discipline of the Council of Trent. Some of these include Mass I Lux et Origo, Mass IX Missa Cum Jubilo, Mass XI Orbis Factor, etc. The tropes were phrases of prose and poetry used to amplify or embellish a text. Interestingly, an example of a trope was returned in the Novus Ordo Penitential Rite, "LORD, you were sent to heal the contrite of heart, LORD, have mercy" the preface to LORD, have mercy, being the trope.

Well, back to the Gloria.

This Gloria, the oldest known in the whole repertoire of liturgy, the original sung Gloria, sung over 1100 years ago is "too hard" for you. Thus the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops and their liturgical experts have not put this Gloria into Celebrate in Song but some other "anonymous" chant-like Gloria.
"The National Council for Liturgical Music suggested that the ICEL chant for the Gloria would not be easy to learn an therefore for the implementation resource they chose the setting you find in Celebrate in Song."
Will this mean that this beautiful Gloria will be relegated to the back burner when they finally publish it which they must?

Here is the Gloria in its original Latin and below in the corrected translation.




Do you think this is too hard?


Proof: The Canadian Bishops' Conference wants you off your knees!

...and to obey a "lay minister" when ordered to do so!

Where is the GIRM (General Instruction on the Roman Missal) for Canada?

A few months ago, I posted this and this. I stated at that time that Canadian bishops asked the congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments to approve a variety of kneeling postures for Canada. I also indicated at the time that this was the reason for the delay in the Recognitio for Canada. (I will also say that I was chastised by a few bloggers demanding "proof"and that I publicize my "sources.")

I've written three times to the experts at the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops to ask this question. I wrote this week to remind them that I had already written twice before with no answer and I finally received a response with the proof that my suspicions were correct:



"The GIRM with Canadian adaptations is not in print yet precisely because the matter of posture is not yet settled. Until that happens (which we think we be soon) we cannot make the GIRM available."

Not if this blog can help it.

This is what was submitted to Rome for approval:

(52) In the dioceses of Canada, they should kneel from the singing or recitation of the Sanctus to the Memorial Acclamation, except when prevented by reasons of health, lack of space, the large number of people present, or some other good reason. Those who do not kneel at the Consecration, however, should make a profound bow when the Priest genuflects after Communion. The diocesan Bishop may allow the common practice of kneeling at the Consecration only. Where it is the practice for the people to remain kneeling after the Sanctus until the end of the Eucharistic Prayer and before Communion when the Priest says, Behold the Lamb of God, it is laudable to retain this practice.

(53) To achieve uniformity in gestures and postures during one and the same celebration, the faithful should follow the instructions given by the Deacon, lay minister, or Priest in accordance with what is laid down in the Missal.

Can you explain to me why any Catholic in the pew is to listen to any "instruction" from a lay minister?

What is a lay minister anyway?


liturgy@cccb.ca