"I Say This Motivated by Christian Charity"

So began a DoR priest's Easter Sunday sermon. He continued by saying the following:

"I say this motivated by Christian charity. If you are a Catholic who has come back to the Church . . . Wait, let me rephrase that. If you are a Catholic who chose to walk out on the Church, and is now back at Mass, you are not in a state of grace. You must make a full sacramental confession before you receive Holy Communion."

What greater gift is there than a priest who will actually say to these twice-a-year Catholics that what they are doing is not okay? While it is excellent that these people are motivated to step into church, they must be motivated to do so Sunday after Sunday, month after month, year after year. However, they do not see the need to do so when they get the same message every Sunday they show up: "Jesus loves you just the way you are - don't change a thing." If that is true, then there's no need for Mass, is there? Also, when these people come to Mass, they are confronted with "liturgical irregularities,"  trite preaching, horrible music, much of it stuck in the years between 1965 and 1980, and no sense of the sacred. The Mass, for them, is something they "do" a couple times a year to pay-off the Lord of the Universe, the Great High Priest, Jesus Christ.

So what can we do to get people coming to Mass with regularity? In the words of Fr. Rego, we must "Preach Hell." If the people have no sense of sin, there can be no sense of grace. If we return to the sacred at Mass, and have Gregorian Chant in lieu of tambourines and air guitars, and precious metals in place of clay, glass, and wooden  "sacred vessels," we will begin to see people asking questions like, "Why do we do this? What does it mean?" This is our springboard into proper liturgical catechesis, people. Restore a sense of the sacred, and the people will begin to realize that the Mass is not something casual and free-to-be-manipulated by anyone who chooses to do so. There will be a sense of awe, being at Mass and being completely powerless. The Mass is an experience of God, and for us to feel that there is no mystery, no mystical captivation, is to not fully comprehend the presence of God.

If more priests begin their Christmas and Easter sermons with words like this, I guarantee you, you will see people begin to question their complacency. After the priest made this announcement, at the end of Mass there were people lining up to do two things: 1. Confess their sins and 2. thank the priest for his explanation, because it "made me realize that I was in a state of grievous sin."

It's not hard. Get one or two good priests, get a solid group of the faithful, such as us, and coupled together, orthodoxy will once again reign supreme in the Diocese of Rochester. We are merely hibernating, friends. And the winter is almost over.

Resurrexit sicut dixit. Alleluia.

Holy Saturday - the Easter Vigil

Consider Well That Bleeding Visage

This Good Friday, I should like to ask you one simple question for your contemplation.

When you look at the face of Our Lord, bleeding copiously and reigning from the cross, can you honestly see reflected in his suffering the petty politicking we see in our daily lives, our liturgies, our work places? To love Christ Jesus is to find the value of His sufferings, and not bury them in shameful Masses, flawed theological musings, and intolerant speech.

Remember, dear friends, that Our Lord looked at St. John and declared, "Behold thy mother." In like manner, we must take Mary into our hearts, giving her those chambers once reserved for our callousness and greed. Furnish your soul for sacred things. Do not let it rot in the stew of iniquity. Whenever we are complicit in a Mass in which heinous abuses are perpetrated, we are the ones who jeer at Our Lord crucified. We are the ones shouting out to Pilate. We are the high priests who declared "we have no king but Caesar."

Look at Our Lord's bleeding face, and tell me: do you see reflected in His Divine suffering the casual and pompous nature of several of our Masses? Do these Masses actually capture the nature of His supreme sacrifice? They ought to, friends. Do not let the sufferings of Christ Jesus be in vain.

The Reproaches - Good Friday Meditation.

Taken from the Boston Catholic Journal with music below.

"My People, My People what Have I done to you, how have I offended you, answer me!"

The Sung Reproaches and Veneration of the uplifted Cross on Good Friday are surely the high point of the Good Friday liturgy. The familiar words and the haunting chant seem to penetrate the very marrow of our being as we experience the Suffering Savior saying to each one of us , and directly to our hearts, "My People, My People, what have I done to you, how have I offended you?"

The Reproaches are a set on antiphons and their responses representing the reproaches, the rebukes of Christ to His people.

Christ in the words of the reproaches rebukes us – by His great love he delivered us out of Egypt, out of our slavery and bondage, and how did we repay Him? We nailed Him to the Cross! We repaid His love with hatred and indifference, we repaid His generosity with meanness and spite, how well deserved we are of the reproaches of our God.

May these ancient words, this ancient liturgy, speak to our very souls, and at the end let us keep silence, for we have no answer, but sin, our sin is the only answer to Christ's cry, "My people, My people!"
And in the silence let us renew our sorrow and marvel at this God who loves us so much that He bled and died upon a Cross of shame that we would have life, life in Him.

The Reproaches



"My people, My people what have I done to you, how have I offended you answer me!

I led you out of Egypt from slavery to freedom, but you have led your Savior, and nailed Him to a cross.

Hagios OTheos, Hagios ichyros,
Hagios athanatos eleison himas.
Holy is God, Holy and Strong,
Holy Immortal One , have mercy on us.

For forty years in safety, I led you through the desert, I fed you with my manna, I gave you your own land, but you have led your Savior, and nailed Him to a Cross.

Hagios O Theos, Hagios ichyros,
Hagios athanatos eleison himas.
Holy is God, Holy and Strong,
Holy Immortal One , have mercy on us.

O what more would you ask from me? I planted you, my vineyard, but sour grapes you gave me, and vinegar to drink, and you have pierced your Savior and pierced Him with a spear.

Hagios OTheos, Hagios ichyros,
Hagios athanatos eleison himas.
Holy is God, Holy and Strong,
Holy Immortal One , have mercy on us.

For you scourged your captors, their first born sons were taken, but you have taken scourges and brought them down on Me.

My people, My people what have I done to you, how have I offended you? Answer me!

From slavery to freedom I led you, drowned your captors. But I am taken captive and handed to your priests.

My people, My people what have I done to you, how have I offended you? Answer me !

Your path lay through the waters, I opened them before you, my side you have laid open and bared it with a spear.

My people, My people what have I done to you, how have I offended you? Answer me !

I led you, held securely, My fire and cloud before you, but you have led your Savior, hands bound to Pilate's court.

My people, My people what have I done to you, how have I offended you? Answer me!

I bore you up with manna, you bore me down and scourged me. I gave you saving water, but you gave me soured wine.

My people, My people what have I done to you, how have I offended you? Answer me !

The kings who reigned in Canaan, I struck way before you. But you have struck my crowned head, and struck it with a reed.

My people, My people what have I done to you, how have I offended you? Answer me !

I gave you a royal scepter but you gave me a thorn crown. I raised you up in power, but you raised me on the Cross.

Hagios OTheos, Hagios ichyros,
Hagios athanatos eleison himas.
Holy is God, Holy and Strong,
Holy Immortal One , have mercy on us.