I hear from a lot of people that "It's still the Mass" and "It's still the Eucharist". Guitars strumming to "Gather us in"? Well, "it's still the Mass". People touching Holy Communion with their own hands? "Well, it's still the Mass". Drums? "Still the Mass!" Fifteen (always female) EMoHC, horrible, abstract vestments devoid of any true Catholic symbolism, no incense, vapid hymns, and a priest who strolls into the congregation for the Sign of Peace? Well you know what, that's ok, because "It's still the Mass".
We need to remember something. It is NEVER just "Mass". It is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and a lot more emphasis needs to be put on that 'Holy' and 'Sacrifice'. We have become complacent and lazy in accepting the liturgical abuses that plague, and in some cases have become status quo, in the Novus Ordo.
How dare we say "It's still the Mass". "Is it worthy of Christ?" should be the perpetual question on our lips! Is what we are doing timeless and acceptable, are we striving to present Our Lord and His angels with a liturgy they would recognize behind the gates of Heaven? Are we attempting to convey to the congregation, not that we can be as entertaining as First Tabernacle True Baptist Church of the Living Water (Reformed) down the street, but that we are members of the Church that spans decades and will stretch into the future till Christ returns to reign as King?
No. Holy Mass is not "still the Mass". It needs to be more. We shouldn't accept "still the Mass". We should see that as an embarrassment. We should never have to utter those words because every Mass offered to God on the face of this planet ought to reflect the Glory and Eternity that is taking place in Heaven at every moment of every day.
"Still the Mass". BAH!
Monday, May 19, 2008
Saturday, May 17, 2008
The Body and Soul of the Rosary
If you think about it, it is truly amazing that there is an all powerful God who wants to save us from an eternity of misery. Think of your worst day. I've had a doozy, and the only thing that got me through it was thinking "I can go to bed at the end of the day, wake up, and put this all behind me".
But in hell there won't be that. It will be eternal misery over and over again. We'll force ourselves farther and farther from God, and all that is good. God, however, is doing all He can to prevent that. He gave us an excellent weapon to use too; The Rosary.
Most people don't understand the rosary. When I suggest it as a meditation device people think I'm nuts. The Rosary is meant to be meditative. There is a body and soul to the Rosary; the body is the physical aspects, the prayers and beads. The soul is the spiritual and hidden aspects; the meditation on the mysteries.
A lot of people forget that second part but we have to remember that a human seperate from their soul is dead. What then is the Rosary without the meditations? If you can truly balance the body and soul of the Rosary the effects are astounding, and the graces abundant.
There's a lady who prays the Rosary over the radio in my area and she rushes through the Hail Mary's so quickly that the last sentence sounds like "nowandatthehourofourdeathamen". Literally 'death' and 'amen' are said in the same breath. It's very off putting and completely defeats the purpose of the Blessed Rosary. The prayers should breath through you steadily, and the mysteries should surround your imagination. Imagine the joy and rest Mary was anticipating as she made it to St. Elizabeth's. Imagine the smells at the Crucifixion, touching Christ's bloodstained feet. Imagine the sounds of the angels' praise as Our Lord ascended.
Balance the Body and Soul of the Rosary. Keep them together and the depth of your understanding will continue to grow and pervade every bit of your life. Our Mother is one of our greatest advocates, and will not turn us away if we sincerely seek her son's Divine Will.
But in hell there won't be that. It will be eternal misery over and over again. We'll force ourselves farther and farther from God, and all that is good. God, however, is doing all He can to prevent that. He gave us an excellent weapon to use too; The Rosary.
Most people don't understand the rosary. When I suggest it as a meditation device people think I'm nuts. The Rosary is meant to be meditative. There is a body and soul to the Rosary; the body is the physical aspects, the prayers and beads. The soul is the spiritual and hidden aspects; the meditation on the mysteries.
A lot of people forget that second part but we have to remember that a human seperate from their soul is dead. What then is the Rosary without the meditations? If you can truly balance the body and soul of the Rosary the effects are astounding, and the graces abundant.
There's a lady who prays the Rosary over the radio in my area and she rushes through the Hail Mary's so quickly that the last sentence sounds like "nowandatthehourofourdeathamen". Literally 'death' and 'amen' are said in the same breath. It's very off putting and completely defeats the purpose of the Blessed Rosary. The prayers should breath through you steadily, and the mysteries should surround your imagination. Imagine the joy and rest Mary was anticipating as she made it to St. Elizabeth's. Imagine the smells at the Crucifixion, touching Christ's bloodstained feet. Imagine the sounds of the angels' praise as Our Lord ascended.
Balance the Body and Soul of the Rosary. Keep them together and the depth of your understanding will continue to grow and pervade every bit of your life. Our Mother is one of our greatest advocates, and will not turn us away if we sincerely seek her son's Divine Will.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
The True Place of Scripture
It's sort of tough for me to admit it, but there was a time when I strongly disliked the Bible. I hated how everyone around me was twisting it to tell me what was true. As a protestant I had no final authority except for Scripture, and whoever had the strongest interpretation was who I believed. Of course, the argument of who's interpretation was strongest is very subjective, and as such my personal beliefs changed often.
At one point, just before discovering the Catholic Church, I even wished for a Christian Church that didn't use the Bible. It sounds sort of silly now, but I was being pulled in all these different directions and the Bible seemed to be at the root of it. In actuality it was men at the root of it, who had formed the Sola Scriptura heresy, but I had never even heard the term 'sola scriptura'. I just wanted to get away from the Bible.
Well I tried too hard I think. To this day I don't like reading Scripture. I love listening to it at Mass, but when I think "you need to knuckle down and start learning this" I turn away. I'm still too prejudiced against it.
See, I think part of me is afraid that I will start to put Scripture back on the pedestal that it doesn't belong on, the one Luther put it on so long ago. Scripture is the only inspired texts of our God, but it's given too much weight that is not counterbalanced by Sacred Tradition in the protestant religions. I am still working my mind around keeping these two Inspired Revelations on equal footing.
It is Catholic to view them as equal. God has not spoken only through Scripture, but through Oral Tradition, and these have both been passed on to us from our ancestors.
Anyway, I think I'm going to start using the Agape Bible Study Online to research more. I may even start with the Old Testament, as I don't have as much of a bias there because not many protestant teachings come from the Old Testament. I need to accept and welcome Scripture back into my life and leave behind the bad taste left by protestant interpretations.
St. Jerome would smack me silly...
At one point, just before discovering the Catholic Church, I even wished for a Christian Church that didn't use the Bible. It sounds sort of silly now, but I was being pulled in all these different directions and the Bible seemed to be at the root of it. In actuality it was men at the root of it, who had formed the Sola Scriptura heresy, but I had never even heard the term 'sola scriptura'. I just wanted to get away from the Bible.
Well I tried too hard I think. To this day I don't like reading Scripture. I love listening to it at Mass, but when I think "you need to knuckle down and start learning this" I turn away. I'm still too prejudiced against it.
See, I think part of me is afraid that I will start to put Scripture back on the pedestal that it doesn't belong on, the one Luther put it on so long ago. Scripture is the only inspired texts of our God, but it's given too much weight that is not counterbalanced by Sacred Tradition in the protestant religions. I am still working my mind around keeping these two Inspired Revelations on equal footing.
It is Catholic to view them as equal. God has not spoken only through Scripture, but through Oral Tradition, and these have both been passed on to us from our ancestors.
Anyway, I think I'm going to start using the Agape Bible Study Online to research more. I may even start with the Old Testament, as I don't have as much of a bias there because not many protestant teachings come from the Old Testament. I need to accept and welcome Scripture back into my life and leave behind the bad taste left by protestant interpretations.
St. Jerome would smack me silly...
Sunday, May 11, 2008
What Our Faith Means
I was sitting at a pub in my town one day during my conversion to Catholicism, when a friend asked me what Catholics believe. Afterwards I wrote this, and I think it should be available to someone else who might stumble across it, and maybe make up for what I didn't do that day. I just found it again tonight in my computer.
She probably wasn’t really interested. Not in a genuinely spiritual sense. She was my friend, and knew I was converting, and so she asked me, in a very nonchalant way;
“So, what do Catholics believe?”
I stared at her for a moment, sitting across from me in a pub downtown, the wood table highly polished and the bar downstairs already a little loud. Clearly she didn’t understand the meaning of her question. The depth that an explanation would require. What do Catholics believe?
I faltered, and said the easiest thing would be to recite The Creed. So I did, and she asked a few questions about it, but I always felt that I let myself down, and The Church.
What do we believe? Where to begin! Should I mention the pouring of pure water from a silver shell across the head of a newborn baby, the Holy Baptism that marks the introduction into a Catholic’s life? Well what about what that Sacrament does? The washing away of that Original Sin that marks us all? Well then I would have to mention our First Parents and that day long, long ago…and the apple that started it all.
Or turning from The Sacraments, what about Mary? She probably wouldn’t have even understood how controversial our Mother is, or why Protestant Missionaries would want to desecrate her shrine. I could speak about the rosary, and the multitude of flowers dropped at the feet of the Queen of Heaven as we recite each ‘Ave’.
Or the Latin! How it has breached the borders and spread our Faith across an entire globe. The solemnity of it, the importance of knowing how to speak in our family’s tongue. How it brings us together and why we feel this ‘dead’ language is so alive.
Maybe I should go into the Angels who were with us, sitting in that booth. Her Guardian Angel, and mine, and the archangels who approach the throne of God, and who are sent to defend us. I could’ve told her about the sword of St. Michael, or the touch of St. Raphael, or the voice of St. Gabriel. I could’ve taught her the prayer to her Guardian Angel, and informed her of the fact that she has had a heavenly helper, and an intercessor, all the days of her life.
The saints! On our rosaries, our medals, in our books and prayers. The truth of their lives, both on Earth and in Heaven. Their special quirks that live on in the way they answer our prayers, and the steady trust we have in them, brought on by their never-failing intercession and continuing prayers to God.
But really, when it comes down to it. I should’ve told her about a cross. A rough, splinter-filled, blood stained cross that hoisted upon it a man who was more than a man. A man who was God, and yet no less a human being. A man who had friends who abandoned Him, a mother who loved Him, a religion that had been taught to Him. The God, who had created the world, and us, and who wanted to save us from a fate we had brought about so long ago, with an apple.
I should’ve spoken about a crown of thorns that was more beautiful and glorious than any wrought today from the purest gold, silver, and gems. About a military cloak, saturated with scabs and blood, that created a garment that seemed to be more grand that the longest robes worn by Kings. I should’ve spoken of three nails, that hung Him there, propped us for all to see, throughout all time.
His Sacred Heart, and the blood, and the water, that poured from it. His Divine Mercy, which flows from Heaven down to us everyday and lets us make it to tomorrow.
I should’ve have given my lips to the Holy Spirit and let Him lead me to say words that would’ve touched her heart and made her think, “Maybe…”
Instead I recited The Creed. I mentioned nothing of the flesh and blood that we believed in, I only gave the skeleton. In saying The Creed I presented her with a gift that still may one day spring to the forefront of her mind, but didn’t give her the living faith. I gave her the basics, and none of the meat.
It’s haunted me ever since.
She probably wasn’t really interested. Not in a genuinely spiritual sense. She was my friend, and knew I was converting, and so she asked me, in a very nonchalant way;
“So, what do Catholics believe?”
I stared at her for a moment, sitting across from me in a pub downtown, the wood table highly polished and the bar downstairs already a little loud. Clearly she didn’t understand the meaning of her question. The depth that an explanation would require. What do Catholics believe?
I faltered, and said the easiest thing would be to recite The Creed. So I did, and she asked a few questions about it, but I always felt that I let myself down, and The Church.
What do we believe? Where to begin! Should I mention the pouring of pure water from a silver shell across the head of a newborn baby, the Holy Baptism that marks the introduction into a Catholic’s life? Well what about what that Sacrament does? The washing away of that Original Sin that marks us all? Well then I would have to mention our First Parents and that day long, long ago…and the apple that started it all.
Or turning from The Sacraments, what about Mary? She probably wouldn’t have even understood how controversial our Mother is, or why Protestant Missionaries would want to desecrate her shrine. I could speak about the rosary, and the multitude of flowers dropped at the feet of the Queen of Heaven as we recite each ‘Ave’.
Or the Latin! How it has breached the borders and spread our Faith across an entire globe. The solemnity of it, the importance of knowing how to speak in our family’s tongue. How it brings us together and why we feel this ‘dead’ language is so alive.
Maybe I should go into the Angels who were with us, sitting in that booth. Her Guardian Angel, and mine, and the archangels who approach the throne of God, and who are sent to defend us. I could’ve told her about the sword of St. Michael, or the touch of St. Raphael, or the voice of St. Gabriel. I could’ve taught her the prayer to her Guardian Angel, and informed her of the fact that she has had a heavenly helper, and an intercessor, all the days of her life.
The saints! On our rosaries, our medals, in our books and prayers. The truth of their lives, both on Earth and in Heaven. Their special quirks that live on in the way they answer our prayers, and the steady trust we have in them, brought on by their never-failing intercession and continuing prayers to God.
But really, when it comes down to it. I should’ve told her about a cross. A rough, splinter-filled, blood stained cross that hoisted upon it a man who was more than a man. A man who was God, and yet no less a human being. A man who had friends who abandoned Him, a mother who loved Him, a religion that had been taught to Him. The God, who had created the world, and us, and who wanted to save us from a fate we had brought about so long ago, with an apple.
I should’ve spoken about a crown of thorns that was more beautiful and glorious than any wrought today from the purest gold, silver, and gems. About a military cloak, saturated with scabs and blood, that created a garment that seemed to be more grand that the longest robes worn by Kings. I should’ve spoken of three nails, that hung Him there, propped us for all to see, throughout all time.
His Sacred Heart, and the blood, and the water, that poured from it. His Divine Mercy, which flows from Heaven down to us everyday and lets us make it to tomorrow.
I should’ve have given my lips to the Holy Spirit and let Him lead me to say words that would’ve touched her heart and made her think, “Maybe…”
Instead I recited The Creed. I mentioned nothing of the flesh and blood that we believed in, I only gave the skeleton. In saying The Creed I presented her with a gift that still may one day spring to the forefront of her mind, but didn’t give her the living faith. I gave her the basics, and none of the meat.
It’s haunted me ever since.
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Just Being Catholic.
Sometimes I get a real joy out of just doing something so intrinsically Catholic. Yesterday, for example, I received Confession. I love the feeling of coming out of the Confessional. I feel so at peace and free. As Father says the words of absolution I can just feel my sins melting away. Confession is one of the greatest gifts of Our Lord.
After Confession I was heading out of St. Mary's and I stopped. To the right of the side door I was exiting there is a shrine to Mary as Our Lady of Fatima. It's a little recessed in and there are tiers of candles on either side of her. It's beautiful with the flickering light and the statue is a true work of art.
As of then I had never prayed before it, but something just tugged at me last night. I went and knelt for a few moments, reciting a Hail Mary and a few other little prayers before finally getting up and leaving.
Just the actions of doing something so Catholic made me feel so...good. I felt reunited to the Church, and to myself. It kept a smile on my face all night long. I went to Borders and picked up some books, one of which is Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton. The parts I've read so far have been very funny and insightful.
I look forward to my next little 'so-very-Catholic' moment. They're almost like islands in the day that hold us fast to Christ's Church.
After Confession I was heading out of St. Mary's and I stopped. To the right of the side door I was exiting there is a shrine to Mary as Our Lady of Fatima. It's a little recessed in and there are tiers of candles on either side of her. It's beautiful with the flickering light and the statue is a true work of art.
As of then I had never prayed before it, but something just tugged at me last night. I went and knelt for a few moments, reciting a Hail Mary and a few other little prayers before finally getting up and leaving.
Just the actions of doing something so Catholic made me feel so...good. I felt reunited to the Church, and to myself. It kept a smile on my face all night long. I went to Borders and picked up some books, one of which is Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton. The parts I've read so far have been very funny and insightful.
I look forward to my next little 'so-very-Catholic' moment. They're almost like islands in the day that hold us fast to Christ's Church.
Friday, May 9, 2008
I am Catholic. Hear Me Pray.
Well, this is my second foray into blogging my life as I attempt to convert my heart towards Our Lord in the practices that have sustained the Catholic faithful since the Council of Trent. The first sort of fell apart...not enough interest on my part. That was a while ago though, and now maybe I can get back into the groove.
So I am a Traditional Catholic. A young Traditional Catholic. There are more of us out there than you'd think. Especially more of us out there than some people would wish. The fact is that those Catholics who remain Catholic do so because they know that being Catholic is special, and the traditional Rites and devotions more explicitly pronounce Catholicism uniqueness. The Novus Ordo, though a valid and occasionally beautiful right, pales in comparison to the Tridentine, and, I'm sorry, but to look at the prayers of the Pre Vatican II Baptismal, Marriage, Ordination, and Anointing Rites and say they are equal in beauty and meaning to our current Rites is ridiculous.
In a world where a crucifix in a urinal passes as great art, it is a tough business trying to stay true to God's Church. Everyone says you're too strict, or that "God wouldn't really care". I believe He does. It matters which denomination you belong to (and the only true "non-denominational" Christian Church is the Catholic Church which, by definition, is not a denomination). It matters whether or not you attend Mass on Sunday, or go to Confession. Yes God wants you to tell your sins to a 'man'.
I'm far from perfect. I simply try and conform to Our Lord's will. Luckily, we have a beacon on a hill to guide us; The Holy Catholic Church.
So I am a Traditional Catholic. A young Traditional Catholic. There are more of us out there than you'd think. Especially more of us out there than some people would wish. The fact is that those Catholics who remain Catholic do so because they know that being Catholic is special, and the traditional Rites and devotions more explicitly pronounce Catholicism uniqueness. The Novus Ordo, though a valid and occasionally beautiful right, pales in comparison to the Tridentine, and, I'm sorry, but to look at the prayers of the Pre Vatican II Baptismal, Marriage, Ordination, and Anointing Rites and say they are equal in beauty and meaning to our current Rites is ridiculous.
In a world where a crucifix in a urinal passes as great art, it is a tough business trying to stay true to God's Church. Everyone says you're too strict, or that "God wouldn't really care". I believe He does. It matters which denomination you belong to (and the only true "non-denominational" Christian Church is the Catholic Church which, by definition, is not a denomination). It matters whether or not you attend Mass on Sunday, or go to Confession. Yes God wants you to tell your sins to a 'man'.
I'm far from perfect. I simply try and conform to Our Lord's will. Luckily, we have a beacon on a hill to guide us; The Holy Catholic Church.
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