Back to Basics: Prayer and the Mass

Traditionally, Catholicism has four kinds of prayer.

• Adoration: Praising God.
  
• Contrition: Asking for God's forgiveness.
  
• Petition: Asking God for a favor.
• Thanksgiving: Showing God gratitude.
  

The Church believes that the Mass is the highest and supreme form of prayer, so it has all four elements in it. The Gloria is the adoration part of prayer, whereas the Confiteor and Penitential Rite are the contrition part. Later in the Mass, after the homily (sermon) and the Nicene Creed, comes the Prayer of the Faithful, also known as the General intercessions, which is a prayer of petition. The thanksgiving part comes after Holy Communion, when gratitude is shown for all the graces given at Mass.

Catholicism for Dummies by John Trigilio

4th Book Dropped

The Cell by Stephen King

Ok, I can hear it now. Yes, I should have known better. However, I was intrigued by the idea of a cell phone pulse that turns everyone into zombies.

Unfortunately it seemed that King has picked up his sense of timing from Jon Bon Jovi ("don't bore us, get to the chorus"). No character development, just blast us right into the gross horror and never quit. I got as far as the characters noticing a "hive mind" sort of development as well as "flocking behavior" ... got bored and quit.

Guess I'll go back to my usual Stephen King tactics ... keep rereading The Stand and The Shining and ignore his new books.

Love is More Than Feelings

Love for God does not consist in sensible feelings, although these too may be given to us by Our Lord so as to help us to be more generous. It consists essentially in the full identification of our will with that of God ...

Love is repaid with love, but it must be genuine love, which is seen in specific ways in the fulfillment of our duties toward God and towards others, even when our feelings do not incline us in this direction, and it may be for us an uphill struggle. The highest perfection consists not in interior favors or in great raptures, wrote St. Teresa, but in the Will of God that, as soon as we realize that he wills anything, we desire it ourselves with all our might.

In the service of God, a Christian should be guided by faith an in this way overcome the ups and downs of moods. To guide myself by mere sentiment would be like putting a servant in charge of the household and causing the master to relinquish his position. Sentiment is not what is bad, but the importance that is given to it ... In certain souls the emotions constitute all their piety, to such an extent that they are convinced that they have lost it whenever the feeling goes away ... If only these souls could understand that this is precisely the moment in which to begin to have it (J. Tissot, The Interior Life).

Lent and Eastertide (In Conversation with God, Vol. 2)

Laura H's Blog

For those of us, and we know who we are, who know Laura H. personally ... here is her blog. It has much to recommend it whether you know Laura or not. I especially was taken by her post today about confession.

Mozart Remix

Papa and his iPod. Via WardWideWeb.

No Man is an Island

ABOUT A BOY

It is rare that a movie has the plot synopsis as the very first lines, but the theme is aptly posed by the British "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" game show host, "Who said 'no man is an island?" Fliply answered by Hugh Grant's character, Will, "Jon Bon Jovi," we see another main aspect to the movie. He's shallow, admits it right up front and uses his money and charm to get him what he wants. He maintains that he is an island and that it is the best way to live, unencumbered by problems.

When Will decides that single mums are the best women to date and goes seeking the best venue to meet them, he encounters Marcus, a misfit school boy. Marcus, in turn, tries to recruit Will to date his suicidal mother in an attempt to get "back up" for when things go bad. Ostensibly about Will's attempts to find suitable girl friends, and ultimately love, the story actually is about how both "boys" influence each other to find happiness.

I've seen this movie many times and am struck by how consistently enjoyable it is. Toni Collette is a delight as the suicidal, hippie mom who dresses outlandishly and, in a sudden paroxym of need, shouts across the schoolyard to Marcus, "I love you." Nicholas Hoult is perfect as Marcus who loves his mother and will call, "I love you too, Mum" back across the schoolyard even though he knows exactly the beating this will earn him from all the bullies. Hugh Grant hits the exact right notes as the selfish but charming bachelor who has just enough empathy for an unhappy boy to make a mimimum of effort to help him out.

HC Rating: **** Nine thumbs up.

Sent to Preach

This excerpt is talking about when the twelve disciples were sent out to proclaim "the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew 10). It never occurred to me to wonder how the apostles felt about it. Jesus spoke and so they did it. But thinking of how reluctant I feel to put myself out there sometimes ... they must have felt much the same, at least at the beginning.

Matthew and John and Peter (whose Gospel Mark wrote) were among the six pairs of apostles sent out on that first mission (Mt 10). No one of them gives us a single detail. Yet it may well have been the most nerve-racking experience any of them had yet had. To begin with, they had been ordered to take the road with no money and no food, wearing nothing but what they stood up in — they went out as mendicant friars would later go. They were to live on what they were given, and for men not rich indeed but respectably brought up, this could have been trying.

Yet it was as nothing to what they had been told they must do. We can imagine the cold pain in the back and the gulp as they steeled themselves to their first miracle — would the disease obey them? Would the devils? Their first sermon might have meant a chiller pain, a more sickening gulp — anyone who remembers his own first speech will know about that. And preaching was such a long way away from fishing, or even tax collecting. Fishermen had no training as prophets, tax collectors still less.

Their instructions were so very exacting (some indeed envisioned a wider apostolate than this first one). They were to be wise as serpents — considering the part that the serpent's cunning had played in the Fall of man, it is interesting that our Lord mentions its wisdom. It is faintly surprising that he offers is apostles the serpent for their imitation at all.

The dove also is held up for their imitation. Yet there is nothing dovelike in what they must do is any house or city will not receive them or hear their words: "Going forth out of that house or city, shake off the dust from your feet" (Mt 10:14). This shaking the dust from the feet was an exclusively Jewish gesture — Jews used it, for instance, when returning to the Holy Land from the lands of the Gentiles. The apostles must have been startled to be instructed to use it against their fellow Jews.

To Know Christ Jesus by Frank Sheed

Back to Basics: Uniting Past, Present, and Future

The Catholic Church professes that the Mass isn't just a reenactment of the Last Supper, when Jesus took bread and wine and said the words, "This is My body," and "This is My blood," (Matthew 26:26-29). More than a ceremonial reenactment of an ancient ritual, the Mass combines past, present, and future at the same time.

• Past: The exact words and elements that Jesus used at the Last Supper on Holy Thursday are used faithfully and precisely.
• Present: The Mass brings grace, nourishment, and instruction for the people who are present.
• Future: It foreshadows the sacred banquet in heaven. Jesus often spoke of a heavenly banquet or wedding feast where guests would be well fed, lasting for eternity and surviving well after the world ends.

The Mass is pivotal, because it transports the participants back in time to Christ's Last Supper with his apostles, Christ's Passion and death on the cross, and his Resurrection and the empty tomb on the first Easter Sunday. The same words that Jesus spoke at the Last Supper are used to consecrate the same things that Jesus used back then — bread and wine — during the Sacrament of Holy Eucharist. The same sacrifice is offered — namely, the Son is sacrificed to the Father on behalf of all humankind. The same risen Christ comes to enter the souls of each person at Holy Communion when the congregation eat and drink his living (risen, not dead) flesh and blood.

Catholicism for Dummies by John Trigilio

He Wants to Spend More Time With His Family ...

Dallas' cathedral's pastor has gone and no one's talking. In the diocese of Dallas that usually means only one thing. The law's on the way and the bishop's employing duck and cover tactics.

The pastor of Dallas' Cathedral Shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe suddenly left his high-profile post this week, stunning staff members and leaving fellow clergymen in the dark.

Catholic Bishop Charles Grahmann has tightly guarded news about the Rev. Ramon Alvarez's departure, which the priest disclosed to some co-workers Monday. By late this week, many other local clerics didn't know that it had happened, much less why.

Father Alvarez – who is a potential witness in two upcoming child-sex cases and has previously admitted misconduct with an adult – drove away from his mother's home without commenting Friday when reporters asked to speak with him.

Bronson Havard, the bishop's spokesman, wouldn't answer when a reporter asked whether the priest was in trouble. He later released a statement saying that the departure was "not related in any way to inappropriate conduct with a minor."

Full story at Dallas Morning News
(free registration required)

Of course, it is my cynical and suspicious mind that recalls Fr. Alvarez admitting to inappropriate sexual contact with a fully grown man who was not a minor.

I hope this all turns out to be a tempest in a teapot. If so the diocese is choosing an awfully strange way of putting rumors to rest ...

Remember Goliad! Remember the Alamo!

You mean to tell me that I had to find out it's San Jacinto Day from an emailing pal? (Thanks Don!) It wasn't even in the newspaper (well, ok, the front page of a section of the newspaper which is the stuff I read ... except for the comics ... but now I'm off track...).

Let's all go get a few margaritas and lift them high to the Texian heroes of the decisive battle of the Texas revolution!

Catholic Question of the Day

Here's a good question from a pal...

What the heck is a solemnity?

How handy that I remembered having posted about this ... and found it way back at the beginning of 2005. How time flies!

I'll put it all below as I found it interesting to read through again. NOTE: Fr. Stephanos made some good comments that I am using to amend the excerpt below. His comments are italicized.

We got our new Church calendar a week or so ago. Tom immediately started comparing it to the one he has set up for our church's web site (he's the web servant). Then the question arose as to what all those saint day celebrations actually meant ... solemnity, memorial, optional memorial ... what's the difference?

Here is a great source that answers all those questions. From most important to least here is what all those celebrations are:

SOLEMNITY
A Solemnity of the Roman Catholic Church observes an event in the life of Jesus, Mary, and the saints, beginning on the evening prior to actual date. Solemnity is made up of Latin words solet and annus, meaning a yearly (annual) celebration. They are observed throughout the entire Church.

A solemnity can be observed like a Sunday: it has vigil Mass the evening before. Also, any solemnity that coincides with a Sunday can take the place of the Sunday (but not during Advent and Lent).

Solemnities observed by the Roman Church

• January 1: Mary, Mother of God (formerly known as the Feast of the Circumcision)
• Sunday between Jan 2 & 8: Epiphany, in United States only; elsewhere January 6
• March 19: Joseph, Husband of Mary
• March 25: Annunciation
• March/April (varies): Easter Triduum
• 40 days after Easter: Ascension of the Lord
• 50 days after Easter: Pentecost
• Sunday after Pentecost: Holy Trinity
• Sunday after Holy Trinity: Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi)
• Friday after Body & Blood: Sacred Heart
• June 24: Birth of John the Baptist
• June 29: Peter and Paul, Apostles
• August 15: Assumption of Mary
• November 1: All Saints
• November (varies, always Sunday): Christ the King
• December 8: Immaculate Conception
• December 25: Christmas

FEAST
Religious feasts celebrate or commemorate certain concepts or events in the history of their respective religion with particular traditions and rituals.

A feast can take the place of a Sunday only if the feast is a feast of the Lord himself. For example, the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord (August 6) or the Triumph of the Cross (September 14).

MEMORIAL
In the Roman Catholic Church, a Memorial is a feast day of relatively low importance. However, all priests must recall the saint commemorated in their Masses and the Liturgy of the Hours.

OPTIONAL MEMORIAL
In the Roman Catholic Church, an optional memorial is the lowest class of the feast day. The priest is permitted to celebrate the feast day or not as he chooses. (See Memorial.) The saints or events celebrated in these feast days are considered to be of less universal importance to the Church. In addition, as long as no feast day of higher rank is foreseen for a particular day, a priest is permitted to celebrate a feast day that does not appear in his local calendar as an optional memorial, normally out of personal devotion to the saint.

Something that I thought was very interesting was that our calendar has on every month in capital red letters FRIDAY REMAINS A SPECIAL DAY OF PENITENTIAL OBSERVANCE. I have read in several places that although there is no stricture specifically against meat on Friday anymore this is merely so that people can put their own memorial penitence into place. As one source said (wish I could remember which), most people will find that the easiest one to implement is abstinence from meat ... and this is true in our household. After Rose suddenly held my feet to the fire about Friday penitence about two months ago we have done our best to just keep meat out of the diet on that day. It's amazing how difficult that can be and also amazing how it does a good job of reminding you why you are observing that penance.

Fear and Loathing ... at the Movies

For those who can't believe that I haven't seen Schindler's List or the The Godfather (or a few others), I must explain that two emotions dominate in my specific avoidance of those movies. Hand in hand with this is my desire to actually enjoy a movie ... which many of these make difficult through subject matter.

Of course, those are fear (of being traumatized) and/or loathing (of a particular subject or actor).

Specifically:

• Schindler's List - Fear: I still haven't recovered from Sophie's Choice which can make me break down and weep if I think about it too much. The trailers for Schindler's List left me in about the same shape. Sorry but I'm not going there voluntarily.
• The Godfather - Fear: cold blooded gangster movies, however well done, aren't gonna go down well. Loathing: Marlon Brando. Great actor no doubt but I can't stand him. 'Nuff said.
• Pulp Fiction - Fear: see notes from The Godfather above.
• Shawshank Redemption - Loathing: Tim Robbins. (Although I probably will see this movie eventually despite that. I saw Master and Commander despite my loathing for Russell Crowe and enjoyed it.)

Mission Impossible 3 ... Best of the Bunch?

So says Harry at Ain't It Cool.

He mentions two things I didn't know before ... it is directed by J.J. Abrams and has Philip Seymor Hoffman as the villain (second only to Goldfinger, says Harry). He says this movie is the best ever retooling of True Lies (a favorite of mine except for the overlong fight scenes which dominate the end).

Hmmm, I am going to have to rethink my previous disinterest now...

Back to Basics: Penance

Catholics believe that the Holy Mother Church gives birth in the Sacrament of Baptism, nourishes in the Holy Eucharist, helps Catholics grow in Confirmation, and heals in the Sacrament of Penance.

Medicine and therapy can heal a wounded body, but Catholics believe that only God's grace can heal a wounded soul. That's why Jesus left the Sacrament of Penance to heal our spiritual wounds, which we call sin.

Often, people think of sin only as breaking God's laws. Sure, stealing, lying, and murdering break some of the Ten Commandments and are considered sinful. But Catholics believe that God said, "Thou shalt not," because he knew these sinful actions would wound spiritually.

Catholics think of sin like a bacteria or virus to the soul. When a person lies, cheats, steals, or murders, it's like being infected with millions of deadly germs. The longer the infection is left untreated, the more it spreads and worsens. It wounds and can even kill the life of grace that enables entry into heaven.

Just as tumors are benign or malignant, Catholics believe that sins are venial or mortal. In other words, some sins aren't considered as serious as others and merely inflict a slight wound to the soul, but others are so intrinsically evil that they're considered deadly. They're called mortal sins, because they can kill grace.

The Sacrament of Penance (also known as the Sacrament of Reconciliation or Confession) is for spiritual healing. According to the Gospels, after the Resurrection, Jesus appeared to the apostles, breathed on them, and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; whose sins you shall retain, they are retained," (John 20:22-23).

Because Jesus gave the apostles the power to forgive sins, he must have wanted them to use it. So the Sacrament of Penance has been the very will of Christ from day one.

Catholicism for Dummies by John Trigilio

This was really brought home to me the last time I went to Confession. The priest was giving me several steps to do ... he kept repeating, "to heal your wounded soul." I realized that I had been thinking in terms of having broken a rule but not of the consequence to me. It was very soothing to think of my "wounded soul" being restored.

3rd Book Dropped This Year

On the Road with Francis of Assisi : A Timeless Journey Through Umbria and Tuscany, and Beyond

I got about a third of the way through this story of a woman and her husband following St. Francis' trail through Italy and realized what was missing. The passion of personal insight. Yes, they are physically following his trail so we get a fairly good biography of the saint. However, the most we see of the couple themselves is little details such as they had a tough time in Bologna just like St. Francis ... neither could get lodging. Wow, don't knock me over with those personal revelations!

Thanks, but I'd like a little more from the author than that. I am thinking of such books as John Paul the Great, Virgin Trails, or The Miracle Detective. If I wanted to read a straight biography of St. Francis I'd have gone to a different source. And that wasn't my main interest here.

I've Heard of Blood Brothers But This is Ridiculous

Of course, that is often the case with the tortured translations featured at Engrish.com.

How Amateurish Am I?

Very. I still haven't stopped laughing over this.

At least I'm in good company. Check out the new additions to Amateur Catholic.

Pope Benedict XVI - One Year Later

What can I say? I was thrilled when he was chosen ... wanting to jump up and down and clap my hands and drive around honking my horn.

A year afterward ... I love him. I am still thrilled that we have such a shepherd.

More eloquent people than I have said it much better, so I will direct you to:

• John Allen for the analysis
• Amy Welborn whose thoughts mirror my own amazingly
  

Casting Out Devils

There are many Christian circles in which even to admit belief that there is a devil makes one an object of curiosity. In such circles Christ's casting out of devils is never mentioned voluntarily at all; if some amused unbeliever raises the matter, the answer is that Jesus himself knew better, but found it saved trouble to use the language of the people of his own day, who, to a man, were confirmed believers in the devil.

But this view can arise only out of a prolonged abstention from Gospel reading. Jesus was not that sort of person. On a matter of no importance he might have used ordinary ways of speech. But he would never have used a way of speech, however ordinary, that was based on a religious error. When his disciples assumed that a man was born blind either because of sins he would one day commit or sins his parents had already committed (Jn 9:2), he told them plainly that neither of them was the cause.

Further, when we come to read some of the accounts of expulsions of demons, we should feel that he would have been carrying the use of popular ideas and popular language rather far, if he did not believe that there were any demons there. For he spoke to them, commanded them, questioned them, granted a request made by them, ordered them to be silent about himself. Further still, when he sent the Twelve out on their first mission without him, he expressly gave them the power to cast out devils (Mt 10:8)...

... there can be similarity between diabolic possession and nervous disease: the Catholic Church makes strenuous efforts to be sure that demons are actually present before she resorts to exorcism: it is possible even for the very skilled to be deceived — to the amusement, perhaps, of such demons as happen to be watching from the sideline. But Jesus could not be mistaken. At times we find him treating deafness, dumbness (Mk 7:32-35), blindness (Mk 8:22-26), with no mention of demons, his commands being addressed only to the afflicted body or the bodily affliction.

I have said that he orders demons out. It is fascinating to compare the speed and almost casualness of his exorcisms with the form prescribed in the Church — which occupies thirty pages of the Rituale Romanum...

He [Jesus] simply ordered the demons out, exactly as he had ordered their leader away after the third temptation. And they had to go. They might plead, they might abuse, but they went. Their inability to resist his word must have convinced them, as no miracle could, that he was something new in the world.

To Know Christ Jesus by Frank Sheed

Back to Basics: Receiving Holy Communion

When believers receive Holy Communion, they're intimately united with their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. However, Communion isn't limited to the communicant (the one receiving Holy Communion) and Jesus Christ. By taking Holy Communion, the Catholic is also expressing union with all Catholics around the world and at all times who believe the same doctrines, obey the same laws, and follow the same leaders. This is why Catholics (and Eastern Orthodox Christians) have a strict law that only people who are in communion with the Church can receive Holy Communion. In other words, only those who are united in the same beliefs — the seven sacraments, the authority of the pope, and the teachings in the Catechism of the Catholic Church — are allowed to receive Holy Communion.

In Protestant tradition, Communion is often seen as a means of building unity among various denominations, and many have open Communion, meaning that any baptized Christian can take Communion in their services. Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Christians, on the other hand, see communion not as the means but as the final fruit of unity. So only those in communion can receive Holy Communion. It has nothing to do with who's worthy...

Similarly, Catholics who don't follow the Church's laws on divorce and remarriage, or who obstinately reject Church teaching, such as the inherent evil of abortions shouldn't go to Communion, because they're no longer in communion. It's not a judgment on their moral or spiritual state, because only God can know that. But receiving Holy Communion is a public act, and therefore, it's an ecclesiastical action requiring those who do it to be united with all that the Church teaches and commands and with all the ways that the Church prays.

Catholicism for Dummies by John Trigilio