Monday Musings

A few random thoughts and ponderings to start the week...

I think I might have mentioned this here before, but the thought entered my head again this Sunday while at Mass: Since the introduction of the new Mass translation during this past Advent, the popular Mystery of Faith proclamation, "Christ has died; Christ has risen; Christ will come again," is no longer listed as an option in English language missals. Indeed, this option was never a part of the original Latin text and (in my opinion) should not have been introduced into our English Mass. It strikes me as bold and un-Catholic the way such additions and alterations were made to the liturgy post-Vatican II. To simply invent an option that did not exist before flies in the face of a true understanding of the ancient Liturgy.

The widespread use of this invented text was, to me, emblematic of the whole post-Conciliar era. It seems that everybody used this Mystery of Faith as their go-to option (many parishes I attended used it almost exclusively)...but nobody knew that is was a purely invented line that did not appear in the Latin. So too with many other liturgical inventions: everybody does it, because nobody knows that it should not be done.

I am grateful that the new Mass translation has served to tighten up our liturgical practices.

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I recently had a conversation with some Protestant friends concerning Sola Scriptura...I plan to post some of what I said during that conversation in the form of a blog post in the coming days. Maybe that will kick-start my writing since I seem to be in a bit of slump.

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This Sunday's Gospel told of the Apostle Andrew going to his brother, Simon (Peter), and telling him that he had "found the Messiah." Meanwhile, the Epistle reading mentioned purity of heart, and living a moral life. Our priest used these passages to point out the necessity of "fraternal correction." It is our duty to tell others about Jesus, and to bring them into a relationship with Him (as Andrew did), and a huge part of that evangelizing includes living a moral life and teaching others to do the same. We are called to be temples of the Holy Spirit (as the Epistle said) living our lives accordingly. If we are to bring others to Jesus, as Andrew brought Simon to the Lord, then we must teach others to live according to His commands. It was good to hear our priest speak so forcefully about fraternal correction, since the topic is often avoided in our "live-and-let-live" society.

This Week's Headlines

As another week comes to an end, this is your chance to top off your glass with a final helping of news, current events, and just plain interesting stuff that may not have made into the mainstream media. A chance to linger for a few more moments before we close the door on the week. Below are some links to articles, blogs, and miscellaneous happenings that caught my eye over the past few days. Sample what you like - I'll serve up more next Friday...

Two Interesting Arguments for God: Intelligibility & Desire - "I wanted to share two simple arguments for God's existence that I don't see used very often :the argument from intelligibility, and the argument from desire."
Theology: The Spiritual Danger of the Bella Figura - "As the Church, the body of Christ, we are at our best when we see ourselves for who we are—fallen men and women in need of a savior."


Converts and the symphony of truth - "If there is a thread running through these diverse personalities, it may be this: that men and women of intellect, culture and accomplishment have found in Catholicism what Blessed John Paul II called the 'symphony of truth.'"


How the Church Fathers Can Help Us Engage the Culture for Christ - "...despite the limits of argument, we should never fail to offer arguments when they are demanded of us."

What Makes Norman Rockwell Possible? - "Though he wasn’t a regular churchgoer, he seems to have beheld the world with a sensibility that, in the history of the world, has only developed within a Christian civilization. It is what made his art conceivable."

Controversial John Paul II statue will get makeover - [Well, that's good to know. If you've seen it, you'll know why.]

Art & Liturgy: The Splendor of Faith - "In manifesting the underlying principles of the Catholic faith, liturgical art is integral to both the lex orandi (mode of prayer) and the lex credendi (mode of belief) of the Church."

"Marky Mark" Grew Up And Digs the New Translation - [Watch the video - it's refreshing to hear a celebrity talk about family and faith in this way.]

Jehovah’s Witnesses Came by Today - [More Catholics should be prepared to do what this author did.]

Should priests with effeminate manners work to correct them? - [Interesting question... As usual, a hard-hitting answer from Fr. Z.]

Conservatives Remain the Largest Ideological Group in U.S. - [Good news on the political front. Hopefully this is a trend for the future.]

And finally, I saw this posted at a blog I happened upon:
"True story. Someplace 'out East' (as we say in the Midwest). Second Sunday of Advent. Pastor began Mass by reporting that he received an angry letter from a parishioner. Seems the priest had changed all the words of the Mass last Sunday, even the consecration. “If you don’t stop this immediately, I’ll report you to the Pope."



I've been slow getting back into blogging after the Christmas Season, so I threw these links together at the last minute. Feel free to post any other links of interest in the Comments Section below.

Monday Musings (...one day late)

A few random thoughts and ponderings to start the week...

OK...I admit, it's taking me some time to get back into blogging. Hopefully, I can focus in the coming weeks and get back on track.

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And so, Christmas comes to an end as we celebrate the Baptism of Our Lord. Here are a few comments I posted recently in an online conversation concerning the Baptism of Jesus:

It is easy to think of Christ's baptism as an odd thing. Since He did not need the grace that is imparted in baptism, then why should He receive the Sacrament at all? He even told John that it was necessary that He be baptized, when John said that instead Jesus should be baptizing him. So why should it be necessary for the Son of God to be baptized...?

I have heard it explained before that Jesus did not need sanctification or grace in the waters of baptism (as we do), but the water itself was made holy by His baptism: He entered the water before us to open the Sacrament up for our benefit.

And so it is necessary that Jesus be baptized, not for His sake, but for ours. He must first open the waters to us by piecing them with His own flesh. It is Christ who makes the Sacrament of baptism effective for imparting His grace by first entering into the Sacrament in a physical and literal way. We find Christ in the waters of baptism because He truly went there.

I have read a similar explanation of Jesus' death: We encounter Christ after death because He went there before us. Prior to the Son of God becoming incarnate and dying, God had not enter into "death."And so Jesus' death was God's way of placing Himself on the other side of death's door, so to speak. So when we say that Jesus "descended into hell" or "descended to the dead" (depending on the version of the Apostles Creed), we are saying that God entered into death and opened the way for us, so that the Infinite enters into the finite; the God of Life conquers death by literally bringing His Life into the realm of the dead.

So in baptism, it is an effective sacrament (actually imparting true grace) because Grace itself first entered into the waters.

This Week's Headlines

As another week comes to an end, this is your chance to top off your glass with a final helping of news, current events, and just plain interesting stuff that may not have made into the mainstream media. A chance to linger for a few more moments before we close the door on the week. Below are some links to articles, blogs, and miscellaneous happenings that caught my eye over the past few days. Sample what you like - I'll serve up more next Friday...

Breaking Bad Liturgical Habits, by George Weigel - Part I and Part II

Why Do We Ask Saints to Pray for Us? - "Mary and the saints are more alive and more holy than our family and friends. To refer to them as dead is not at all true. They are more alive in Christ now than even the holiest person on earth."

Arianism Today - "Today Arianism takes a different form, and comes to us in the guise of humanism. By 'humanism' I mean that belief system that takes man as the measure of all things."

What does IHS stand for? - "The meaning of the Holy Name of Jesus." Also, check out this piece on the same topic.

Understanding Christ's Humanity and Divinity - "...Jesus was not human before the Incarnation, and... Nestorianism is wrong for rejecting the Hypostatic Union.  So let's address the Catholic position, and then compare it with the early heresies."

Should government be in the marriage-recognition business? - "Even when a couple chooses not to have or cannot have children, the state’s publicly and legally recognizing their heterosexual, committed relationship as marriage reinforces marriage as a procreative, child-rearing institution in general."

The Prophetic Pope Paul VI, and the Consequences of Contraception - Pope Paul VI "was able to see everything from the loosening of societal morals and the increase in infidelity, to the 'pornification' of culture (and objectification of women), to the risk of state-imposed contraception (including sterilization).  And he saw all of these things in 1968, when perilously few others were sounding the alarm."

Here Comes Fr. Everyone - "I have known priests who play the drums, and priests who look bizarre without a cassock on; preists who bubble over with mirth, and priests who struggle with depression.  Athletes, intellectuals, bon vivants, wet blankets, firebrands, gourmands, shysters, flirts, gentlemen, ascetics, exorcists, prophets, jokers, and weirdos."

Error Has No Rights: Time to Ditch Liberalism for Theocracy  - [Bold essay - can't say that I agree with the author, but he has a compelling point.] "There is no reason to be embarrassed of theocracy. It was the norm up until the eighteenth century. And what have the last three hundred years given us but a few hundred million deaths thanks to the godless spawn of Enlightenment infidels?"

Catholic Beverages: Moored by Reason and Time - "No authoritative Church documents deal with gin or Scotch, lager or stout; nor do they tell us much about how (or how much) to drink."

"My Dad, Fallen Catholic Bishop"? - [I ordinarily prefer not to highlight scandals in the Church, since that is not the point of this blog, but this article takes an interesting angle to a recent resignation of an American bishop.]

Get off the Hulu, Save America -  [This is just plain funny.]

More articles can be found at these sites:

New Advent

The Pulp.it

Pewsitter

And as always, feel free to post any links you may find interesting in the Comments Section below...

Quote of the Week

"We believe that the Word became flesh and that we receive his flesh in the Lord’s Supper. How then can we fail to believe that he really dwells within us? When he became man, he actually clothed himself in our flesh, uniting it to himself for ever. In the sacrament of his body he actually gives us his own flesh, which he has united to his divinity. This is why we are all one, because the Father is in Christ, and Christ is in us. He is in us through his flesh and we are in him. With him we form a unity which is in God."

 - St. Hilary of Poitiers

A Quick Note...

I've sort of let this blog rest for a couple of weeks. Spending time with the family during the Christmas Season. Merry Christmas everyone, and I plan to be back to blogging next week.

In the meantime, check out these sites for Catholic news and stories of interest:

New Advent

Pew Sitter

The Pulp.it

Catholic Exchange

This Week's Headlines

As another week comes to an end, this is your chance to top off your glass with a final helping of news, current events, and just plain interesting stuff that may not have made into the mainstream media. A chance to linger for a few more moments before we close the door on the week. Below are some links to articles, blogs, and miscellaneous happenings that caught my eye over the past few days. Sample what you like - I'll serve up more next Friday...

A Blessed Christmas - "'Where will you have your Christmas?' A common question this time of the year. What’s it mean?"

Breast-Beating During the Confiteor - "Although the Second Vatican Council requested the removal of "useless repetitions," it must be said that not all repetition is useless."

Investigation concludes on alleged Fulton Sheen miracle - "The documents will now be shipped to the Vatican for consideration. If the alleged miracle is approved by the Pope, U.S. Catholics could witness the first ever beatification on American soil in the Diocese of Peoria, said the foundation."

What Hitting Reply Instead of Forward Taught Me About Sin - "Other people in my RCIA class struggled with the idea of confessing their sins to a priest, but I never had the slightest problem with this practice. Especially after that experience with the mistaken email..."

Can a bishop forbid Mass in Latin? - "What many people don’t realize is that the Second Vatican Council mandate that Latin be retained in the Latin Church’s liturgical worship (SC 36.1).  It said that the vernacular could be used at times for some parts of the Mass (SC 36.2)."

Humor Site Revealing of Pro-Abortion Culture - "...when ignorance or dismissal of the sanctity of human life has become this pervasive, it’s safe to say we’ve gone too far in participating in or subsidizing the moral corruption of young adults." [The things reported in this article are disheartening.]

Still Praying For Christopher Hitchens - "I have no reason to think that Hitchens had a sudden religious awakening at the end, but I can hope.  I can hope that at the end there was a small crack in the veneer large enough to let in the light."

December is just so busy... Not much time to blog. Check out these sites for more headlines. And post more in the comments section below, if you see anything of interest:

New Advent

Pew Sitter

The Pulpit