Tuesday, July 31, 2007

St Ignatius

Today is the feast day of St. Ignatius of Loyola. As a product of the old Jesuit school system, the one that existed before Vatican II, I have always had a spot in my heart for the Society of Jesus. As Jimmy Aiken says "When they're good, they're very, very good, and when they're bad, their horrid."
Even today the Society contains solid orthodox priests who have done great things, as well as those who are not so orthodox and have caused confusion to the faithful and discredit to their order. In this they are like all other institutions which contain people.
The Society of Jesus is the largest religeous order in the Church, with over 14,000 priests. Jesuits serve God in almost every nation on Earth, even in ones where Catholics and Chrsitians in general are persecuted, something which is not unusual for the order which has had many martyrs in its history.
The founder, St. Ignatius was a member of the aristocracy who was a knight, soldier, hermit, student, teacher and order founder. Born in the castle of Loyola Ignatius, the youngest of 13 children, became a soldier. Wounded in battle he hung his military vestments before an image of the Blessed Virgin and devoted the rest of his life to service to God. A worthy model for the members of his order.
My God bless all the members of the Society of Jesus and may our prayers joint the prayers of their founder for them.

Thursday, July 26, 2007

Adore 2007

If you're in the Tidewater area on September 6th there will be a praise and worship at St. Bede in Williamsburg featuring Matt Maher, Josh Blakesley and Kelly Pease. These are solid, orthodox Catholic musicians and song writers of the charismatic persuasion.
Remember, you can go to praise and worship on Thursday and still attend a Mass of John XXIII on Sunday. It ain't an either or proposition. For tickets send an email to adoretour@stjeromennva.org.
So while I'm at it let me encourage those who have XLT in their diocese to spend an hour in silent adoration before they attend XLT. Remember Peter, James and John were at both the wedding at Cana and the Garden of Olives. So spend an hour with the Lord before you celebrate with Him.

The Apostles

Due to come out within the next few weeks The Apostles is taken from homilies given by the Holy Father, many at vespers during the last year or so. Amy Welborn has written a study guide which allows the book to be used for a twelve part course using the book.
Coming in November Jesus, the Apostles and the Early Church and in October The Blessings of Christmas, a book of seasonal meditations.
The Holy father is nothing if not prolific. Right now he is on vacation and is working on the next volume of his work on Jesus.
I hope to be facilitating a course using The Apostles and Amy's wonderful study guide, once the book is actually out.

Friday, July 20, 2007

Summorum Pontificum in Richmond

The Diocese of Richmond has responded to Summorum Pontificum with not totally unexpected prorogation. To quote Catherine Combier-Donovan, director of the diocesan Office of Worship:
“Questions will have to be answered such as: what constitutes a “stable group of the faithful” requesting a Tridentine Mass, and which priests possess the minimum linguistic and rubrical abilities to celebrate this rite.
It is quite what one might expect from a diocese with the liberal leanings of Richmond under its previous bishop, but one hoped would not be seen under the present ordinary.
Certainly the term “stable group of the faithful” is rather vague, but how it is interpreted will tell the tale. In the southeastern portion of the diocese, in Hapton Road there is a large military population, which by definition is highly mobile. Will requesters have to be in the diocese for 5 years before they can be considered stable? Will they have to submit requests for that time to show they are really a stable group?
Certainly the priests who are to celebrate under the rite must by proficient at it. Will the diocese take steps to ensure its priest are properly trained or will it attempt to impede the necessary training, and then claim no one is proficient?
The Holy Father wants a report in three years. It will be interesting to see if the diocese has any additional locations where the Mass of John XXIII is celebrated by that time.

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Mision Trip 2

Just returned from an awesome mission tip . Thanks o the participation of almost seventy adults, young adults and teens we were able to be the feet and hands of Christ for six families, all of whom were in dire need of help.
We painted rooms, repaired roofs, built handicap ramps and even demolished and rebuilt a room extension. We also prayed, did daily praise and worship, and conducted a retreat when we were not working. We also did minor repairs around the Catholic Church which was our headquarters.
I was so prod of our teens, who worked long hours without complaint, to the probable astonishment of the parent/chaperones , who no doubt have difficulty getting them to even clean their rooms (if my experience is typical.)
One team spent two days building a trench so that a house whose foundations were sagging could be jacked up and its foundation repaired. Other teams spent hours removing trash from a number of homes. One spent days helping the owners deal with a major pest infestation. All followed the advice of St. Francis, and preached the Gospel through their actions instead of their words.

Monday, July 9, 2007

Mission Trip

Off to mission trip soon. We are taking a group of approximately fifty to western Virginia to work on a number of projects. Along with long workdays in high heat we will be spending evenings and most of Sunday on retreat.
We may also be doing perpetual adoration for the week, provided the local pastor agrees. Not as easy as it sounds. I doubt the church has a monstrance, they tend to be rather expensive and the church is very small with not a huge number of families to support it. Combine that with the fact that it is a clustered parish, with out a full time priest or even a deacon and it's quite likely adoration is not typically done there.
Adoration was suggested by one of the program leaders. I've been a strong supporter of getting youth involved in adoration as well as XLT, so was quite excited that it was even suggested.
I pray that father is receptive to it.

Summorum Pontificum

Well Summorum Pontificum, the long awaited Motu Proprio on the "freeing" of the Mass of John XXIII is out. The question now is how many people outside the blogoshpere are going to hear about it. Summorum Pontificum , a blog devoted to response to the MP, has a list of the various American diocese along with links to their responses, if any. The USCCB has already posted on it, as have about a dozen bishops. In the Ecclesiastical Province of Baltimore, which includes diocese in Maryland, Delaware and Virginia not one bishop has yet seen fit to post anything. In my own diocese there is not even a link to the document, or its accompanying letter. I wait with bated breath to see if it's mentioned in an upcoming issue of the diocesan newspaper.


Thursday, July 5, 2007

Take on the Motu Proprio

Gerald Augustinus over at The Cafeteria Is Closed has a wonderful essay on the upcoming Motu Proprio on what the Vatican has been calling the Mass of John XXIII, that is the Mass as celebrated according to the 1962 Missal.
For those who have stumbled to this site from outside the St. Blogosphere, the Holy Father is preparing to "liberate" the old rite, that is allow it to be more widely celebrated alongside the new rite, which was the fruits of the post Vatican II liturgical reform.
Tomorrow is the day the MP will be released to the public. A number of bishops have already seen it. So if Catholic sites seem to load a little slower tomorrow, especially the Vatican site, now you know why.