Fr. Herbert Thurston, S.J. On Good Friday

There is every reason to believe that these solemn prayers in our Good Friday service date back at least to the time of John Cassian and St. Jerome. Very possibly they formed an almost invariable adjunct to the three lessons and the psalmi responsorii, of which, as was said above, the non-liturgical synaxes mainly consisted. In the middle ages I think that they still survived in our English churches in the prayers known as the bidding prayers, and in France in the prieres du prone. 1 But although they must thus have been an almost, daily feature in the life of the Christians of the fourth century, it is only on this one occasion in the whole year that they are heard in our churches now. Probably the apparently meaningless Oremus, which is said in the Mass before the antiphon called the Offertory, marks the place where once they stood.

THE ADORATION OF THE CROSS

After the solemn prayers the next feature which meets us in the morning office of Good Friday is the rite which in the Latin books is described as adoratio crucis, but which amongst our English forefathers was known as the creeping to the cross. There is not, I think, any sufficient reason for dwelling upon the preliminary ceremonies with which that most impressive function is introduced. I content myself with reproducing the rubrics in the Holy Week book, which sufficiently explain the details of what is done. After reading the foregoing prayers the priest puts off his chasuble, and taking down the cross, covered with a veil, from the altar, he goes with the deacon and subdeacon to the Epistle corner of the altar, where he uncovers the top of it, and shows it to the people, singing with the deacon and subdeacon the following Anthem :

Latin

Ant. Ecce lignum crucis
in quo salus mundi pependit.

English

Ant. Behold the wood of the cross, on which
hung the salvation of the world.


To which the choir, prostrate on the ground, answer :

Venite, adoremus. Come, let us adore.

From thence the priest proceeds again to the Epistle corner, where he uncovers the right arm of the cross, singing a second time, in a higher key,

Ecce lignum, etc.,

as before. Lastly, he goes to the middle of the altar, and uncovers the whole cross, singing a third time, still higher,

Ecce lignum, etc.

After which he carries it to a place prepared before the altar, where himself first kisses it, and then all the clergy and laity, two and two, kneeling thrice on both knees, and kissing the feet of the crucifix. During this ceremony two chanters in the middle of the choir sing the following verses, wherein the Redeemer of the world is represented as reproaching the Jews for their ingratitude..

Latin

POPULE meus quid feci tibi ?
aut in quo contristavi te ?

Re-sponde mihi.

V. Quia eduxi te de terra Egypti:
parasti crucem Salvatori tuo.

English

My people, what have I done to thee ?
in what have I grieved thee?

Answer Me.

V. Because I brought thee out of the land of Egypt:
Thou hast prepared a cross for thy Saviour

Francis And Benedict On Romano Guardini

Many people don’t know that Pope Francis planned to write his thesis on Romano Guardini, the distinguished theologian and liturgist who had a profound influence on Joseph Ratzinger.  Ratzinger even named one of his most important books with the same title as that of one of Guardini’s, namely, The Spirit of the Liturgy.  (We need to read and apply what Ratzinger wrote now more than ever, by the way.) [Magister corrected his own entry which now reads: "It was precisely on Guardini that the Jesuit Bergoglio was planning to write the thesis for his doctorate in theology, during an academic sojourn in Germany in 1986 at the philosophical-theological faculty of Sankt Georgen in Frankfurt: a plan that was later abandoned."] Pope Benedict, the day he stepped-down, quoted Guardini twice in his final speech as Pope.

Link (here) to Fr. Z

The Essence Of The Liturgy

I have a couple of quibbles here.  First, Joseph Ratzinger wrote The Spirit of the Liturgy, not Benedict XVI.  So the Pope doesn’t say these things; Ratzinger said them.

Second, I hope that Ratzinger was not universalizing what seems to me to be a rather German sentiment. To universalize why he thinks people applaud at mass seems rather dangerous.  Or rather, I should put it this way: Ratzinger warns against applause that is “because of human achievement,” and then the author of the article seems to assume that all applause in the liturgy is because of human achievement.  Maybe that is where my quibble is.

I go to an African-American church on Sundays.  There is a lot of applause, and I am part of it.  I also grew up going to masses in Mexico and on the border, all of which were filled with applause (and liturgical dancing for that matter, though I hate the term).  But I think the author of this piece may be too sharply distinguishing grace and nature.  Applause can sometimes be just for the “human achievement.” Fine, now the mass has become a concert.  And then sometimes the priest will say, “Let’s give God a hand!” and that kind of applause is for God (which I don’t think our author would like).  But sometimes applause breaks out, and it is both for God and for the choir who sang to God and for the whole experience.  I often feel that I am applauding both the choir’s effort to praise God and God himself at the same time.  Grace and nature overflow into each other.  Nor have I found that the spirit of the liturgy is broken at my parish because of this applause.  The consecration is very somber.  So is communion time, even with all the clapping. Sometimes clapping is just another way of praising God.

Link (here) to read Mr. Nathan O'Halloran, S.J. at Whosoever Desires

Link (here) to Taylor Marshall and (here) Fr. Z on the subject

Book On Liturgy By Controversial Jesuit

Bookstores are full of Atlas maps. Everything from geographical, to historical, economic and even linguistic. But now Rome has a new addition: an Atlas that deals with Christian ceremonies.  It's called the Historical Atlas of the Liturgy which was authored by Jesuit priest Keith F. Pecklers. It shows the evolution of the liturgy from the first Christians to the present.   

Link (here) to the video by Rome Reports

Jesuit Guitar Masses

Guitar Mass

...we were already experimenting with a new religion curriculum pioneered by a New York Jesuit and introduced by Jesuit Father Frank Stroud, a Prep teacher. Guitar Masses were common and we learned new English hymns, also composed by Jesuit musicians. Jesuit scholastic or seminarian Neil Connolly played the guitar and brought other student musicians into the liturgy. At St. Peter’s College in 1970 there were more than 50 Jesuits in residence as administrators and teachers. Jesuit Father George McCauley by that time had already written his book “Sacraments for Secular Man,” and was teaching the new theology inspired by the various Vatican II documents. 

Link (here) to NJ.com to read the full piece by Fr. Alexander Santora

3 Dimensional Jesuit

Fr. Patrick Connolly, S.J.

Father Pat Connolly S.J., associate professor of film and television at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, said in a recent interview with the Jesuit Communications Center that films (or what he calls “animated stained glass windows”) should be used during Mass. He spoke in the interview about his plans for short religious-themed films that could be used during the liturgy. “The moving image should be used during Church,” he said. “I would create film that would be in fact evocative of the higher understanding and appreciate of water, light, what a leper’s like and what a blind person is like and I would deliberately craft them for that purpose.” 

He mentioned that he’d already done so at a Catholic school Mass for students. He labeled any objections to films being shown during Mass as antithetical to church and worship services as “nonsense” and “silly.” 

He said many Protestant churches are doing this already and he’s confident that the Catholic Church will soon follow suit.

You can listen to the interview here.

Link (here) to The California Catholic Daily

Fr. Philip Endean, S.J. "Now It's As Though A Spouse Has Left Me..."

Fr. Philip Endean, S.J.

I would have no problem saying goodbye to the 1973 Missal that has shaped my prayer life since I was a teenager if I had the remotest sense that we were being given something better, and that its riches were being given us in a new and richer form. This is not the case. 

We are the victims of an abuse of power and of gross incompetence. That said, the world is not lost. We are indeed being led into something new. But this new reality has the character of no longer feeling at home in a Church that, for all its faults, I have loved and tried to serve as best I can. Now it's as though a spouse has left me, as though I simply have no ecclesial home. 

The Kingdom of God in some ways will have to be found beyond, outside the liturgy-perhaps exclusively so. God will still be there for me somehow, I have no doubt-but the Church has finally said it's not a welcoming place for me and for right-thinking people.

Link (here) to America Magazine go down in the comments section of Fr. James Martin's blog post on the new Mass Translation to read this comment by British Jesuit Fr. Philip Endean, S.J.

Dynamic

The current language used by the Church, called "dynamic equivalence" and put in place by Second Vatican Council, is not a literal translation. "[Dynamic equivalence] seeks to try to get at the heart of what is meant," Fr. Patrick Rogers, S.J., director of campus ministry, said. Throughout the fall semester, priests have taken time during the liturgy to explain these changes and why they matter. "These words touch upon important Scriptural references [that allow us] to enter more deeply into the mystery that is the Catholic Mass," Rogers said. "We want to have some kind of a standard so that people can enter into the same dynamics when they come out of the Mass."

Link (here) to The Hoya

Fr. Jim McDermott, S.J. On The Very Very Literal Translation Of The Bible

If you've read my column at all over the last year or so you know I have little patience for the change in the eucharistic prayer from "for all" to "for many".  And if you're wondering what the heck I'm talking about, it's during the prayer over the cup:

Take this, all of you, and drink from it.
This is my blood, given up for you and for all
so that sins may be forgiven. 

The reason they're changing it: the New Testament text from which it's taken literally says "for many", not "for all".  So, it's a correction. The problem is, it sounds like we're suddenly rolling back God's plan of salvation. You know how we used to say God loves everybody, is interested in everybody, regardless of what they believe or ever did or what not?  Well, now we're thinking, not so much. He'd settle with a good 30-50%.

Link (here) to the blog Gone Walk About, by Fr. Jim McDermott, S.J 

“Lefebvrism of the the Left” At America Magazine

This from Fr. Z at What Does Prayer Really Say?

The Jesuit run America Magazine has an article by Paul Philibert, O.P. about the “pro multis” issue. A Dominican writing for Jesuits about liturgy.  Hmmmm. I have written about this issue quite a few times.  ........He argues that people are used to the lame-duck translation, and therefore we shouldn’t change it.  

That is “Lefebvrism of the the Left”.  People are used to vices.  

People were used to the way the Mass was before the Council.  None of that made a difference back then.  The translation of “pro multis” was simply wrong. It had to be changed. He argues from the same old tired arguments about Scripture and from guesses about what Jesus really said.  Fail.  

Translation of liturgy is not the same as translation of Scripture. He  doesn’t deal with the Church’s previous explanations of why the Church says “pro multis” and not “pro omnibus” during the consecration. 

He accuses Pope Benedict of a pre-Conciliar mentality, actually being against the Second Vatican Council’s ecclesiology and he suggests that Pope Benedict doesn’t care about “evangelization”. He seems to be daunted by the possibility that he may have to explain what this means. He suggests disobedience.

Like (here) to Fr. Z's full piece entitled, America Magazine article about “pro multis” in the corrected translation.

 

Black Culture, Fr. J. Glenn Murray, S.J. And Leprosey Of The Soul

Fr. J-Glenn Murray, S.J.

Jesuit priest James "J-Glenn" Glenn Murray was recently removed from ministry by his provincial after a credible accuser came forward about s@xual impropriety conducted by Fr. Murray. 
You can read about the  specifics  of the case (here).  

Below is an excerpt of a blog post by Fr. Jim McDermott, S.J. after he attended a Mass presided by Fr. Murray.

I attended the "Black Culture" liturgy, presided over by Fr. J-Glenn Murray, S.J., a liturgist renowned for his respect for the mass and his challenging depth of insight.  I went mostly to hear what J-Glenn had to say; and he was good, as always. He talked about the angers that we hold on to as a sort of "leprosy of the soul", eating away at us from the inside.  Really good stuff. (Here's some J-Glenn videos I found online.) But looking back, the most profound thing to happen to me at that Mass occurred during the opening procession. Rather than simply processing in, first the deacon holding aloft the book of the Gospels and

then J-Glenn actually danced up the central aisle, their movement a steady sway to the rhythm combined with fantastic 360 degree spins akin to a child imagining he is a soaring plane.  It was those spins that got me, the relish of it, the sense of a joy so wonderful 

it has to be delighted in, expressed.  More than any words could, they drew me into the Mass as a moment of celebration.  

Link (here) to the lengthy blog post by Fr. Jim McDermott, S.J. at his blog entitled, Gone Walkabout.

Dancing With Their Smoking Bowls Of Incense During A Children’s Grade School Mass

Fr. J Glenn Murray, SJ. is a Jesuit liturgist and here’s his bio.   “J Glenn” specializes in African-American worship,..........He was Director for the Office of Worship in the Diocese of Cleveland from 1995 to 2007.  That’s the same diocese where the bishop (Bishop Pilla) resigned in the wake of an embezzlement scandal, where the rainbow flag/colors have adorned their G@y & L@sbian Family Ministry website and where they supported dissident organizations like Future Church with office space in a rectory basement through 2006.  But I digress… Fr. Murray himself created a stir in 2003 by issuing new directives in the Cleveland diocese for how Catholics were to receive communion. An article in the August 24, 2003 Cleveland Plain Dealer that extensively quoted Fr. Murray said, “American Catholics are about to experience major changes in the Communion rite as dioceses begin implementing updated General Instruction of the Roman Missal.”   The only problem is that Fr. Murray’s changes were NOT actually what the GIRM called for. Among his changes were:

• the congregation using the “orans” posture during the Lord’s prayer (this means hands raised as only the priest does)
• embracing fellow worshippers during the exchange of the sign of peace
• “ undoing a lifetime of tradition by not kneeling in prayer after Communion.  Instead, in a sign of the communal nature of the sacrament, worshippers will stand and sing until each person has received Communion.”

Fr. Murray acknowledged the changes would “unsettle many Catholics” but said, “”I think it’s a vast improvement.”

Adoremus summarizes the situation and response. Here are a few excerpts:

These changes were advocated by some liturgists  a few years ago — a revision that was eventually rejected by the Holy See….[and] never approved by the bishops. And they were neither included in the new General Instruction of the Roman Missal for the universal Church, nor in the ‘American adaptations’ of the GIRM.

Cardinal Arinze, then head of the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship, even was asked to weigh-in, and he said:

Earlier, similar responses from the Vatican made it clear that changing customary kneeling to standing was not intended; indeed was ‘laudably retained’.

Adoremus concluded:

The liturgy office in the Cleveland diocese (and several others) is mandating changes that are neither specified nor mandated in the norms for the universal Church or for the US Church. Far from promoting unity, the effect of mandating these deviations from the customary practice in the Catholic Church in the United States is literally divisive — dividing one diocese from another, one parish from another, one Catholic from another.

Besides having no basis whatsoever to change the Cleveland liturgy, he is also a fan of liturgical dance. In this 2004 report, Fr. Murray was seen “accompanied by scantily clad liturgical dancers in black skimpy costumes dancing with their smoking bowls of incense during a children’s grade school Mass.”  He was at the same Religious Ed conference in Los Angeles where Fr. Tim Radcliffe talked about g@y novels and movies. Fr. Murray led a “Black Culture” liturgy:

Beginning with a bongo drum sequence and featuring black Gospel singers dressed in native African costumes, the event featured Jesuit Father J. Glenn Murray…He concluded his homily by leading a hand-clapping rendition of “Can’t Nobody Do Ya Like Jesus,” and dancing all around the stage, with Cardinal Mahony, from his presider’s chair, clapping along with the crowd.

Murray left Cleveland in 2007 after Bishop Richard Lennon arrived in 2006 and started cleaning house.

Link (here) to read the full blog post at Bryan Hehir Exposed

Fr. Patrick Earl, SJ, “Just Having Something Public Is Not Going To Be A Big, Big Deal Here.."

Fr. Patrick Earl, S.J.

At St. Peter's Catholic Church, a Jesuit parish in Charlotte has canceled plans to read the Qur’an from the pulpit on June 26, the feast of Corpus Christi.  

“Just having something public is not going to be a big, big deal here, but to have someone come in and read from the Qur’an and to recognize publicly the existence of Islam and to reverence and respect is a good thing for the Church to do,” Father Patrick Earl, S.J., said on May 27. “I’ve heard from Muslim imams about what they and their congregations have suffered just from the fear, the fear of what they call Islamophobia.”  

On June 7, Father Earl announced the cancellation of the event; he said that he had been unaware that 2004 Vatican instruction Redemptionis Sacramentum forbade such readings. The document states that “it is strictly to be considered an abuse to introduce into the celebration of Holy Mass elements that are contrary to the prescriptions of the liturgical books and taken from the rites of other religions.”  

Link (here) to read the original story at Catholic Culture

 

Jesuit On The New Missal

To help Jesuits throughout the U.S. to prepare for the new translation of the Roman Missal, Jesuit Father John Baldovin, Professor of Historical & Liturgical Theology at Boston College’s School of Theology and Ministry, was asked to give a presentation explaining the historical background of the Roman Missal, with a brief overview of the changes in this translation along with some ideas for faithful ministers of the church to engage this new translation responsibly and use it as well as possible.

His video presentation, The New Roman Missal: Challenge & Opportunity, appears (here) at Jesuit.org.

The Cathedral Of Notre Dame Was Bathed In Sunset.

When I first visited it, the Cathedral of Notre Dame was bathed in sunset. It was the festival of St. Michel during the summer of 1978, and symphony orchestras played under massive tents throughout the plazas of Paris. A Jesuit friend, Joe Devlin (Fr. Joseph Devlin, S.J.), and I walked through the city dumbstruck. The cathedral doors were open; organ music beckoned and Mass was about to begin. It was one of those miracles that thrill the faithful, when a concatenation of unexpected events makes one realize, “God is here.” The statue of Notre Dame de Paris shone serene. We sat opposite her in the north pseudotransept (near where Napoleon was crowned emperor), across from the south rose window, which, bathed by the sun, glowed in ruby, sapphire, amber and ultramarine colors. The two priests began the liturgy, a dark-haired junior and a white-maned senior celebrant. The younger priest welcomed the congregation in French, English, Italian and German. We were about to pray in the center of the European Catholic universe.

Link (here) to read the full article by Fr. Dennis McNally, S.J. at America the Jesuits magazine.

Fr. Thomas Reese, S.J. On "Public Concubinage", "Spiritual Telescopes" And "State Of Grace"

Mario and Andrew Cuomo with Sandra Lee

“This kind of thing has to be left to the man's pastor's [sic] and to the person's bishop," said the Rev. Thomas J. Reese, a senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. "The presumption is that people are coming [to Communion] in good will and with good motives to receive the grace of the sacrament." Peters would have been fine to discuss Canon 915 in general terms on his blog, but his singling out of Cuomo was "totally inappropriate," Reese said. "This guy sitting in Detroit doesn't have some kind of spiritual telescope to look into the soul of Gov. Andrew Cuomo and decide whether he's in a state of grace or not," [Reese] said.”

Link (here) to read the full story at Buffalo News 

Dr. Edward Peters a Canon Lawyer responds to Fr. Thomas Reese, S.J. (here)

An excerpt. 

Fr. Thomas J. Reese, S.J.

Father Reese can hardly be ignorant of the differences between Canons 915 and 916, so I can only take his derisive comments that

I must have “some kind of spiritual telescope to look into the soul of Gov. Andrew Cuomo” as a deliberate obfuscation of my position. For Reese to imply that I have ever held the operation of canon law in general, or of Canon 915 in particular, to rest on an ability to read souls and decide whether they are in the state of grace, is simply false. 

I look forward to his prompt withdrawal of this imputation. In the meantime, I invite interested readers to examine my many writings in this area and verify for themselves that I hold no such views.

Link (here) again to Dr. Edward Peters blog entitled, In Light of the Law.
. 

The article at Cybercast News that started the whole conversation. (here)

An excerpt.

Dr. Edward Peters

“the divorced son of former Gov. Mario Cuomo, who was once chastised by Catholic leaders for his support of abortion rights, calmly received Holy Communion. Lee walked in line for Communion with him.” As noted, Canon Law 915 states that persons “who obstinately persist in manifest grave sin, are not to be admitted to holy communion.” In addition, the Catechism, section 2390, states that 

“in a so-called free union, a man and a woman refuse to give juridical and public form to a liaison involving sexual intimacy. … The expression covers a number of different situations: concubinage, rejection of marriage as such, or inability to make long-term commitments. All these situations offend against the dignity of marriage; they destroy the very idea of the family; they weaken the sense of fidelity. They are contrary to the moral law. The s@xual act must take place exclusively within marriage. Outside of marriage it always constitutes a grave sin and excludes one from sacramental communion.”  

Writing about the Cuomo-Lee relationship on his canon lawyer’s blog on Jan. 4, Dr. Peters wrote, “Andrew Cuomo, governor of New York, and Sandra Lee, a television celebrity, live in what is known technically as public concubinage. The fact that both Cuomo and Lee are divorced renders the concubinage adulterous on both sides as well.” The lifestyle adopted by Cuomo and Lee, Peters continued, has serious consequences under Canon 915 for the reception of holy communion.

Link (here) to read the full article.

"Letting Go" and America Magazine

Fr. Michael Ryan

A prominent Catholic pastor in Seattle is “letting go” of his campaign against a new Latinized translation of the church liturgy, but not his convictions in starting it. “It is the people who will have the last word on the new missal once it is introduced,” Fr. Michael Ryan, pastor of St. James Cathedral, said in a Sunday morning homily. Ryan caused a national stir, among Catholic priests, bishops and scholars, when he wrote a critical 2009 article for the Jesuit magazine America. He launched a campaign entitled “What if we said ‘Wait’?” aimed at taking a second look — involving the laity — at liturgical handiwork of the Vatican’s powerful, insular Congregation for Divine Worship.

Link (here) to the The Seattle Post

America Magazine Publishes Letter By Unhappy Liturgist

Fr. Anthony Ruff, OSB

With a heavy heart, I have recently made a difficult decision concerning the new English missal. 

I have decided to withdraw from all my upcoming speaking engagements on the Roman Missal in dioceses across the United States. 

After talking with my confessor and much prayer, I have concluded that I cannot promote the new missal translation with integrity. I’m sure bishops want a speaker who can put the new missal in a positive light, and that would require me to say things I do not believe.

.

Link (here) to the full open letter by Fr. Anthony Ruff, OSB published at America the leading Jesuit publication in the English speaking world. Fr. Ruff is the publisher of a website Pray Tell which focuses on Catholic liturgy

Liturgy At Saint Louis University

Link (here) to the entire English translation of the new Missale Romano

The Center for Liturgy at Saint Louis University is one of four such liturgical institutes in the United States, three sponsored by major universities: the Notre Dame Center for Pastoral Liturgy, the Georgetown Center for Liturgy, and the Center for Liturgy at Saint Louis University. The fourth Center is the Institute for Liturgical Ministry, Dayton OH.

The Center for Liturgy at Saint Louis University came into existence in Fall of 1993. It was founded by Fr. John Foley, S. J., at the invitation of Fr. Lawrence Biondi, president of the University.

Motivation for this our work is founded in the following statement of Vatican Council II:

Liturgy is the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed; at the same time it is the fountain from which all her power flows (from the Catholic Church’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy).

These words form a mandate for the Church, one that is at once obvious and at the same time unrealized. Catholics would never argue that the Mass is unimportant to them, in fact they would insist the opposite. Yet would they claim as their own the importance that Vatican II gives to liturgy? The Center for Liturgy takes as its mission the realization of the Vatican II vision.

Link (here) to the SLU website.

Bomb Shell Allegation Against Prominent Jesuit

Speaking about his experiences publicly for the first time, Keith Rennar Brennan, of Bayonne, recalled four years of sexual abuse by church staff at St. Paul the Apostle Roman Catholic Church in the Greenville section of Jersey City, starting with Keith Pecklers, the church’s young music director. Brennan said he was 14 at the time and that Pecklers was about three-and-a-half years his senior.....Pecklers, who became a priest, is now a prominent Jesuit scholar. A professor of liturgy at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, he has written, contributed to or edited nine books, according to his Facebook page, and is a frequent commentator on Vatican affairs for American media outlets — including the s@x abuse scandals.

Link (here) to read the full story at NJ.com

Blogger Note: Two Internet sources claim a financial settlement between the local diocese,  Fr. Pecklers and Keith Brennan in 2008. The first  (here) at NJ.com and (here) in the comments section by Keith Brennan.
The story is making its way to Italian media (here)
Statement by SNAP (here)