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.

Another Missa Cantata on Easter Sunday

Our Schola Roffensis will be singing another Missa Cantata on Easter Sunday at St. Stanislaus Church at 1:30 p.m. We will be singing "Lux et origio" for the ordinary parts of the Mass and almost all full Gregorian propers.

Here is a sample of the Gloria from the Mass ordinary.



There will be a regular High Mass, with full choir,for Divine Mercy Sunday on the 11th of April.

Pray the Rosary on Good Friday

Imagine what might happen if every Catholic in the world would pray
a Rosary on the same day! We have an example in October of 1573,
when Europe was saved from the invasion of the mighty Turkish
fleet, by the praying of the Rosary by all Christians!

So, on Good Friday, let us all pray a Rosary for peace in the world and
the return of moral values into our communities. If possible, please
pray your Rosary between Noon and 3:00pm.

Also, please e-mail this message to every Catholic on your address list,
and ask them to pass it along to every Catholic on their lists. Let's
unite in praying one of the most powerful prayers in existence, for
these intentions, on one of the holiest days in our Church year.

SOURCE: http://www.overheardinthesacristy.net/?p=8271

Albs, Marty Haugen, Liturgical Dance

So much for a fresh and vital Church - from these things it looks as if it's stuck in the 1970's. Remember folks, the 70's died for a reason.

So, where do all three of these things occur in a hellish concoction of error? Yup, you guessed it, Bishop Clark's annual Chrism Mass. We have received information regarding what exactly went on there, so I will break it down into swallowable chunks for you:

• There was liturgical dance. An African American gentlemen wearing white pants and a white shirt flitted about the church and sanctuary of Sacred Heart Cathedral, adding to this "liturgical movement" very bizarre hand gestures which our noble informants cannot decipher.
• Bishop Clark, in his generally decent homily, started acknowledging different cultures, i.e. celebrating diversity. However, he added a new category of "culture" by saying, "Some of us are gay, some of us are straight." This was a random, unnecessary, and inappropriate statement. You don't need to do political pandering to gays when you're saying Mass. He's probably just getting excited about the next Rainbow Sash Mass.
• Sr. MaryAnn Binsack played the role of the she-monsignor, wearing her alb which complements her hair cut so nicely. Note that she stands for the consecration, just as many other of the women who like to play dress-up at Mass.
• For the Eucharistic Prayer, the whole Eucharistic Prayer, Bishop Clark was accompanied by piano. Our informant said it was like "Bishop Clark: the Musical." I was able to track down the precise setting used, and guess what? It's not chant. It's Marty Haugen's composition of the Eucharistic Prayer. Why do certain of the clergy insist on using this man's music? He's not even Catholic, but a Lutheran. I know Bach was a Lutheran, too, but he gave us the B Minor Mass - why don't we compare the two: click here for Haugen. I won't dirty this blog by embedding his rubbish. Below is a video containing highlights of the B Minor Mass. This is what Sacred Heart is capable of, what with that magnifictenly grotesque organ, the Eastman School of Music, etc. But no, we get someone playing the piano. Makes sense, doesn't it? Spend millions of dollars on the music at the cathedral, but then use a piano for the highest summit of the Mass. Yeah - no flaw in logic there.
• The only positive thing is that in the front row of the congregation was a woman with a head covering. As our informant said, maybe she will make some of the priests and deacons think twice about what they're doing.

I will be posting more details as they come in. Watch the Bach video to restore your sanity.

The Passion According to St. John

I found this beautiful gem on the website of Musica Sacra. This is a perfect example of what a continuity of reform, tempered with the richness of Tradition, really truly is. You will find the original, Gregorian chant melody, but the words are in English. It is to be sung with three people, preferably three ordained men, or at least, three liturgical ministers whose roles are legitimate and not made up for political reasons.

Click here to view this piece.

Here is a segment of the original Latin chant for the Passion, Passio Domini Nostri Iesu Christi.

Scratch a Liberal, Get a Nazi

I had a run-in recently with a priest who informed me that anyone who professes to be pro-life is, in fact, responsible for abortion. His argument was that if you vote for pro-choice politicians, you elect people who respect women, make them feel better about themselves, and make them less likely to murder their offspring. He said, "Even if Obama were born on Mars, I would have voted for him over McCain." This could turn into a post detailing how a Catholic cannot under any circumstance vote for a pro-choice candidate and remain in a state of grace. Instead, it will go somewhere else - into the deep, perverted psyche of liberals.

First of all, in this encounter, this priest interrupted me twice to make it sound as if I was condoning pro-choice politicians. He twisted my words to make them suit his political agenda. I tried to say, "The Catholic bishops have spoken precisely on the matter, and they condemn anyone who votes pro-choice." What I got out before his rude interjection was, "The Catholic bishops have spoken precisely on the matter, and they condemn anyone who votes . . . "

He thundered back, " . . . anyone who votes exclusively because of their stand on pro-choice politics." He then went on to say that no one really likes abortion - it's a necessary evil. So, let me get it straight - You're only in trouble with the Big Guy when you vote only because a person is pro-choice, ipso facto making you pro-abortion. But, in his view, "No one is pro-abortion." Note the contradiction? In his flawed reasoning, there is no room for sin because "the individual's conscience is the noblest thing involved in the abortion debate." Flawed logic all the way around, and built on rude interjections.

So, what made this priest, let's call him "Joe," react this way, shouting me down for the sake of his personal views?

It's ego.

Every single liberal, without exception, who does not permit the other side to voice its opinion (i.e. Joan Sobala, Nancy DeRycke, Barrack Obama) places more value in the "I" than the "we." A parishioner from St. Anne emailed me once with a "Me-Tally." In this tally, he counted the use of "I," "me," "my," and "mine," over 120 times in one of Joan's homilies. I think we find similar trends in the rhetoric of Prez Obama.

Note also how, when a genuine liberal is opposed, they turn vicious, playing dirty, unfair, and immorally. When parishioners confront these schismatic lay administraitors (TM), who always wins? The lay administrator. Without exception. These women claim the authority of the Church, while at the same time showing a complete rejection of this same authority. The same goes for this priest who declared, "I profess and love everything the Church teaches, and that's why I voted for Barrack Obama."

Liberals claim to be the abstract thinkers, the people who explore every alternative etc. However, they are closed minded and shallow, dealing in twisted absolutes and their own alter realities. Sure, you have to care for this unwilling mother, but not by letting her murder her child. That's ludicrous. In a similar way, liberals fail to grasp anything beside the present. "We now have health-care reform." Yes, we do, but in several years we will be crippled by debt and financial burdens.

Liberals put up this "nicey-nice" facade, but the instant you see through it and challenge their delusions, they turn, quite literally, into Nazis, imposing limitations on what you can and can't do (politically and liturgically).

Seeing as how this post in itself is a "scratch" to a liberal, I'm not going to have free commenting. They can't help themselves. For this one item, any comments you wish to make should be directed to me at cleansingfire@live.com.

See? Conservatives value free speech. We tell you when and for how long there will be a limitation. Try posting a comment at grosswirth.blogspot.com - see how far you get. So much for dialogue, eh?

Goodbye, Nancy - Hello Barb

From a friend of the blog comes this little bit of news: Barb Swiecki has been named the new "leader" of the Rush Henrietta cluster, which comprises Good Shepherd, Guardian Angels, and St. Joseph's in Rush. Mrs. DeRycke will be reassigned to another location. I fear deeply as to what this new location may be.

While Barb Swiecki is not as glaringly schismatic as Nancy DeRycke, the stark worship environment which she has cultivated at Guardian Angels is no shining trophy for either the loyal or the dissenting. However, I know several people at Guardian Angels who are firm, solid, orthodox Catholics who will do the right thing no matter how many women are vested and sitting in the sanctuary. Remember that Barb Swiecki is the pastoral administraitor (TM) who fired Fr. Peter Abas because it wasn't in their budget to pay a priest. If this kind of logic is what will rule the cluster, I tremble to think of how those parishes will end up.

If anyone reading this goes to any of these three parishes, please leave a comment and give us your perspective. Will this be better? Worse? Same? What horror stories have you witnessed or heard?

The cluster is still "uncertain" as to who the "Sacramental Minister" will be.

Every time I type "Sacramental Minister," a little piece of me dies. Can't we just call them "pastors"? Why hire a lay person and a priest, paying two full-time employees? Hire one priest, and have people of the parish do the rest. They will step forward - it's not as if we have an uncaring congregation in the diocese.

While doing some backgroung research, I stumbled across this on the website for St. Joseph's:

Beginning in 2007, our Three Parishes will work together to: •Continue those ministries described above, and look for ways to strengthen these and other ministries in which only two parishes currently collaborate. •Begin work on a joint Social Ministry Committee to study the documents and promote the Diocese of Rochester annual agenda, as well as to coordinate and facilitate social ministry programs/outreach currently offered by the three parishes. •Explore other needed social ministries. •Work toward a ministry to alienated Catholics. •Work toward greater collaboration with CYO (Catholic Youth Organization – Grades 5-12 ) programs.. •Share Pre-Cana Ministry. •Continued collaboration on Lenten Retreats beginning in 2008. •Explore ministry to Young Adults (18-35). •Make Vocation Awareness a priority.

Does anyone else notice the absolutely massive flaw here? The cluster states that they need to strengthen and maintain their "social ministries," participate more in CYO athetlics, collaborate on Lenten retreats, and "explore ministry" to young adults. Oh, and "Vocations Awareness" is a priority. Obviously not, if you list it after CYO and various other UNNECESSARY ministries. Sure, they're wonderful. But the priesthood is necessary. Maybe if these clusters put more emphasis on that, we wouldn't be in such a mess. Young men will answer the call if they're not treated like afterthoughts.

Also on their website is this projection for what, exactly, will happen in this year's assignments:

Number of Priests and Mass Schedules
2006-2010 There will continue to be 3 weekend Masses at each parish site.
2010: There will be two priests serving the three parishes.

•Before the reduction in the number of priests takes place in approximately June of 2010, all three parishes will reduce their Mass schedule to two Masses per weekend at each church site. •The times of the Masses will be determined by the pastoral planning team using consensus (Yeah . . . like that will happen) with input of all three parishes. •Daily Mass schedules will be determined in the same way at that time as well.

Anyone who has gone through a clustering process will know and agree that the debate over which Masses go and which Masses stay does two things: it serves to create a bitter and disunited congregation, and it breaks the resolve of those who fight tirelessly. By the end of this, there is too little steam left to actually push through any non-pastoral-administrator related matters. Do not waste your time bickering about Mass times - take what you get and save your strength for the coming fight, the future of your parishes.

---

Update 3/29/10 (Dr. K): Good Shepherd parishioners have contacted us with information claiming that Ms. DeRycke referred to Ms. Swiecki as the new "Pastoral Leader" and the to-be-named priests who will serve the parishes as "Assisting Priests." Her departure is their gain.

The Liturgical Police Department

Call No Man Father

Missa Cantata

There will be a Gregorian Missa Cantata on Palm Sunday at Saint Stanislaus Church at 1:30 p.m. A Missa Cantata is a sung Mass without using the full Roman ritual that would include the Asperges. The use of the organ is very limited in keeping with the solemn nature of the Lenten season.

We need to take back our Church from Sister Carol Keehan types

The Treachery of a Nun, and a New Sidebar Feature

I was reading the National Review Online, and was stung by the following, my emphasis added:

President Obama will sign the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act at 11:15 A.M. EST.

You can watch it live at the White House web site.

Jake Tapper reports that the president will use 20 pens to sign the bill, and that one each will go to POTUS will Democratic Senators Reid, Durbin, Baucus, Harkin, and Dodd; along with Representatives Pelosi, Hoyer, Clyburn, Miller, Waxman, Levin, Dingell, and Rangel. Pens will also go to Vice-President Biden, H&HS Secretary Sebelius White House legislative affairs assistant Phil Schiliro, White House health policy chief Nancy-Ann DeParle, Vicki Kennedy, and Sr. Carol Keehan.

"So," thought I, "why is she getting one of these metaphorical pieces of silver?

The American Papist has the answer.

The last pen he used, reports Daniel Foster, will be given to Sister Carol Keehan, president and CEO of the Catholic Health Association.

Sr. Keehan, as most of you know, was a staunch ally of the Democrat efforts to push through their health care reform. She issued press releases on behalf of her organization asking representatives in Congress to pass the legislation, even without including abortion funding fixes (which they did). She met with Obama personally several days before the final vote in Congress, she contacted individual congressmen and assuaged their conscience that they could vote for the bill as-is, etc.

And, so, this brings me to the new Sidebar feature. It will be on the right (as is everything else on this blog), and will be titled, "Behold The Ranks of Judas." In it will be listed those Catholics who, though they profess to be truly Catholic, aren't. I will not presume to judge their motives or their souls - that's for God. I will, however, judge their actions. Judging actions is not the same thing as judging an individual, so do not comment here or anywhere saying, "You lack charity," "Love your enemies," "Judge not lest ye be judged." I'm getting tired of these faith-based phrases being twisted by the liberals into traps for those who defend the Faith. 

I will also refrain from putting anyone on this list who may be personally offended. We all know each other well enough, so there's no need to point fingers at others and ourselves. This is for the Church Universal, not the Church Rochesterian.

Passiontide - Bach's St. Matthew Passion

As we find ourselves confronting that hideous and blessed reality of Our Lord's passion, we should begin to place ourselves into a deeper realization of what Passiontide is about.

We are but one week away from Holy Thursday, the day upon which Our Lord gave us Himself in the Blessed Sacrament, the day upon which He gave us the priesthood, and the day upon which He was betrayed by Judas, one of his chosen Apostles. Our Lord does not prevent evil from happening to us or to Him, for if He were to intervene in every matter, He would strip us of our free will, which is the source of the sweetest discovery of God. Judas was chosen by God, elevated to his position by His divine will. However, Judas betrayed God, leading Him to that bloody death on the cross, re-enacted each and every day, upon every altar. Evil can be found everywhere, for the Evil One, the Prince of Darkness, uses our human weaknesses to attack us, weaknesses that destroy us and the Church. However, evil cannot win, for just three days after its absolute triumph, Jesus rose from the dead and ransomed our souls.

Sin and corruption are here, yes, but they are fleeting. Our Lord will not permit sin and iniquity to reign in His stead and in His name.

Below is the opening of Bach's masterful St. Matthew Passion, the translation of which is below the video.

German:
Kommt, ihr Töchter, helft mir klagen,
Sehet - Wen? - den Bräutigam,
Seht ihn - Wie? - als wie ein Lamm!
O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig
Am Stamm des Kreuzes geschlachtet,
Sehet, - Was? - seht die Geduld,
Allzeit erfunden geduldig,
Wiewohl du warest verachtet.
Seht - Wohin? - auf unsre Schuld;
All Sünd hast du getragen,
Sonst müßten wir verzagen.
Sehet ihn aus Lieb und Huld
Holz zum Kreuze selber tragen!
Erbarm dich unser, o Jesu !

English:
Come, ye daughters, share my mourning,
See ye ---(Faithful) whom? --- (Zion, et sim.) the bridegroom there,
See him --- how? --- just like a lamb!
O Lamb of God, unspotted
Upon the cross's branch slaughtered,
See ye, --- what? --- see him forbear,
Alway displayed in thy patience,
How greatly wast thou despiséd.
Look --- where, then? --- upon our guilt;
All sin hast thou borne for us,
Else we had lost all courage.
See how he with love and grace
Wood as cross himself now beareth!
Have mercy on us, O Jesus!

Nod of the Miter Goes to . . .

 . . . Fr. George Heyman for his review of "The Shack." This "assisting priest" has written a very to-the-point review of this novel, and also sets the record straight about noted anti-Catholic writer Dan Brown. He writes:

"It's a novel! I kept telling myself this is a novel. And it's not a very good one at that! William Young's The Shack fits into the nouveau genre of blending the religious and the fictitious in such a way that both canons of western literary tradition are equally offended in the process."

He goes on to say:

"The language is so mundane that the most challenging word in the English language in its two-hundred plus pages is the word 'expectancy.' In short, it's written at about the level of a Middle School Literature assignment."

He continues:

"Needless to say, Mack (the main character) ventures down to the shack . . . where he meets 'Papa' (who as you might expect turns out to be God, but now portrayed as a black woman stereotypically singing and baking), while Jesus is busy making furniture and Suraya (a Native American word for 'wind' - hence the Holy Spirit) turns out to be an Asian woman."

My personal opinion of this book is exceedingly low. It is not worth the paper on which it is printed. It is simple, trite, and un-challenging. At least the DaVinci Code had some blood and cassocks.

I would encourage you to read the rest of Fr. Heyman's review, found here in the Church of the Resurrection bulletin from Sunday: http://content.seekandfind.com/bulletins/06/0209/20100321.pdf

The Castration of our Clergy

The liberals who afflict the Church, pulling Her into fragments and splintering Her unity, attack many facets of Her being. She ought to be One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic. Dissent wrenches one into many. Lowering the liturgy to the level of a mere performance removes the holiness of the Mass and replaces it with profanity. By turning their back on the unifying effects of Latin and Gregorian Chant, they make the Church local, not catholic, not universal. And, by incorrectly assuming that every person has a right to be a priest, they spit in the faces of God and His saints, falsely believing that intuition trumps apostolic succession.

Women will never be ordained. The matter is settled. To debate this further is as pointless as saying, "I think the sun should rise in the West, not the East." A local theologian remarked, "It is what it is." How right she was. A man is called to do one of several things: get married (to a woman) and have children, become a priest, become a lay brother, monk, or friar, become a deacon, or live a single life. Each of these things celebrates masculinity in a distinct way, each raising virtue from an ideal to an act, a perpetual "yes" to God's will. When a man discerns a call to the ordained priesthood, and perseveres in the face of potentially corrupt administrations, he has discovered the call to be Christ to others - to mimic in absolute sanctity He who chose to become Man and dwell amongst us.

This is the thing which liberals do not profess. Or, if they profess it, they don't do so publicly. Our Lord was a man. He was the first priest, the High Priest of all eternity, and remains so to this day. He called the apostles to follow Him in that same capacity on Earth. His other disciples were active in ministry in ways which the liberals tend to muddy. They preached, they evangelized the Gentiles and the Jews, they bore witness to Christ through living holy lives. They discerned their callings. The Apostles discerned theirs. The people who were not ordained as priests followed in humility those who were, i.e. the Apostles. They did not envy them, they did not demand "equal" rights.

In demanding "equality," those who advocate for women's ordination castrate our priests. It is their manhood, their masculinity, that entitles them to follow in the footsteps of Christ, leading to the altar of sacrifice. Our Lord was a man, His Apostles, the first priests and bishops, were men, and men are stilled called to be the priests of Our Lord's Holy Catholic Church. Nothing has changed in 2,000 years - the Church is timeless. Political agendas aren't. These dissenting notions are all we see right now, but compared to the eternity of God, that everlasting Truth which gave us the Truth of the Church, these error-ridden nuisances will be as so many mosquitoes that plague us for a season, then die off.

A man is called to the priesthood by God. This is a genuine vocation. A woman is called to minister in her own unique ways, including motherhood, married life, religious life, and single life. Each is imperative for the success and well-being of the Church. It is when certain erring women try to change this that problems arise. They undoubtedly love the Church in their own way. However, love can easily turn into poison when motives turn from rendering praise and honor to God to rendering praise and honor to His creation, i.e. men and women. If we were to hold up solid examples of the priesthood and religious life, and point to them saying, "This is what it means to be a priest, to be a nun, to be a religious sister or brother," then we would not be in the mess that we find ourselves in. When purposes and vocations are blurred by the heresy of relativism, there seems to be no need for an all-male priesthood. "Anybody can read from the Sacramentary."

However, not just "anyone" can consecrate bread and wine into the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord, Jesus Christ. This is the job of a man and a man alone. By having women taking the place of Jesus, we are not only castrating our priests, but the High Priest Himself, Jesus Christ. What a crime it is to say to God, "I am what I am, and you are not what you are." He is who is. "I am who am." Who are we to put restrictions on God, putting Him into our convenient little boxes of political bickering? We are no one. We don't deserve what He has done for us. It is for this reason that we praise Him. He has ransomed us with His blood, shed upon the cross on Calvary.

I shutter to think of the damage that has been done by priests who succumb to the numbness of liberal ideology. Priests are special. They have authority from God. This authority cannot be trumped by a lay administrator. It is impossible. To permit our priests to be shackled by such an oppressive, backwards system is something which, I pray, will not be held against us. For we are powerless to affect change ourselves - we need the Holy Spirit. When He gives us the strength, the grace, the fortitude to address these things (perhaps under the form of a new bishop), He will have spoken, and spoken plainly. The only people who will be held accountable for their sins are the transgressors themselves. I am not making a judgment against them or their souls - I am not God, and I'm not on that side of the confessional screen. I am merely stating that unrepentant sin does not go unpunished.

We must pray, dear friends, that our clergy finds their masculinity something to be valued, something linking them in a tangible way to Our Lord. Let us pray, also, that our bishops and higher leadership discover the wealth of Tradition found in the true nature of the Sacraments. Priesthood is a manly business. It is not for the weak or timid of heart, nor is it for those who cannot bear their own sufferings, let alone the sufferings of their flock. A priest must beat off the wolves that attack the sheep of his parish, defending the Church, not compromising it.

The priest pictured here (and in dozens of other places across the internet) is standing boldly in the face of enemy sniper fire. The wounded, dying soldier is clinging to his cassock, drawing near to the priest, Christ's ambassador to the suffering. As this wounded man clings to the priest's cassock, let us cling to our noble priests, our priests who stand erect under fire, who are refuges for the exiled and shelters for the wounded. Let us cling likewise to the Blessed Sacrament, present and yet unadored in our tabernacles.

God has created me to do Him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission; I never may know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. I have a part in a great work; I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for naught. I shall do good, I shall do His work; I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place, while not intending it, if I do but keep His commandments and serve Him in my calling.
—Cardinal John Henry Newman

Sacerdotal Duties

It alarms me that there are in the Church several bishops and priests who see no value in the Church as it is, nor in Her Sacraments as they were ordained to be. They constantly seek to refresh Her, adding "fun and exciting" new twists to Her ministry, and interesting new interpretations on the Sacraments.

A priest's duty is to defend the Sacraments, not to re-invent them. How any ordained man can willingly turn from the revealed paths of holiness, and embrace shadowy phantoms of Truth escapes me. A priest is called to be "alter Christi," the other Christ. How can a priest, no matter his zeal, his love for God, or anything else, say, "nah, I think I can divine my own view of the Church and Her Sacraments"?

St. John Chrysostom once wrote, "For he who does not desire to be exhibited in possession of this authority (i.e. priesthood), does not fear to be deposed from it, and not fearing this will be able to do everything with the freedom which becomes Christian men." 

I do not write this to condemn priests, but rather, to ask that our priests realize that, although they owe the bishop their allegiance, there is a higher allegiance - to God, and to His vicar on Earth, the pope, the bishop of bishops. A bishop of a diocese has authority there - this is not up for discussion. However, if he alters the Church against the will of the Holy Father, this is serious.

Our Lord did not descend to Earth and permit his followers leeway in their beliefs. He made it perfectly clear that all of Creation deals in absolutes: good and evil, light and darkness, valid and invalid. This applies to the sacraments of the Church just as it applies to anything else, and a priest has the duty to defend the sacraments' integrity. If people begin to lose faith in the True Presence, the priest must step forth and give the Church's clear teaching. If people begin to think that communal penance takes the place of individual confession, the priest must reinforce that one must go to confession - these services do not forgive sins sacramentally. If people begin to think that the anointing of the sick is something trivial, to be given for a sniffle or runny nose, the priest must explain the sacrament's true reason for being.

There is no room for doubt in the ranks of the clergy. It's as simple as loving Christ by loving His Church. To insist on an altered form of the sacraments is akin to saying "Hey, honey, I love you so much - but you really need a nose job." The Church's sacraments are timeless and perfect. Passing trends and fads have no place in their rituals.

Pray for our priests. We have so many good ones, and we need so many more. Pray for our seminarians, too, that they be filled with a zeal for the Church as it is, as Christ made it - not as men have polluted it.

The Faithful (?) Remnant

In the comment box for Dr. K's piece on parish attendance at SA, OLOL, SM Downtown, and GS, Bernie mentioned that for as many people that have left, at least doubly so have stayed. Why? In my most humble opinion, those who stay in parishes whose liturgical prowess, not to mention theological basis in reality, fall into the following categories:

1. The Ideological Crusaders - These are the people who try to work from within to kill the beast. These people usually have a love for all things genuinely sacred, a distaste for heresy and dissent, and an underpinning sense of fear. Those whom I know who have stayed in parishes such as St. Anne have only done so because they "are on the music committee," or maybe "the liturgy committee." Whatever the committee, they stay to undo do, or at least, oppose, those evils which have made themselves manifest. However, under this genuine desire to serve the parish that once was, they fear what the parish is. In their minds, the St. Anne (or Good Shepherd, or Our Lady of Lourdes) of the past is not dead, but in hibernation - all they need to do is prevent the hunter from shooting the poor beast in its sleep. Well, perhaps it's true that a parish can revive from adversity - just look at Our Lady of Victory before the refugees. However, there is a difference between shifting demographics and a purposeful scattering of the flock. If a lamb meanders away on its own accord, it can be readily led to rejoin the others. However, if a wolf drives a lamb away, bloodying it and battering it, it is improbable that the lamb should rejoin those in the pasture - it has borne too much injury, and suffered too much pain to go back. Those who fled the parishes made a choice akin to that of leaving the room of a dying parent for one last time. Upon leaving that parish, you will never know it as it once was known. "The old things have passed away," and it is not the working of the Holy Spirit.
2. The Ignorant - These are those poor souls who have never been catechized properly, never been educated by a true lover of the faith, never been exposed to the true beauty of the liturgy. For these people, "Church" is "church." The parish is the faith, as opposed to an instrument of that faith, through which its universality is displayed. These people cling to a parish, no matter what, because they love it. No doubt rests in my mind as to the love people have for their home parish. However, there comes a point when one must make a break from the parish, if it becomes a hotbed of sin and dissent. A child will always, in some way, love her mother. However, if the mother becomes a drug addict, selling her body for money enough for the next snort of cocaine, conscious only between binges of drugs and alcohol, the child must leave that parent and seek refuge elsewhere. There is love for the mother, of course. However, the temporal needs of the child outweigh the love for the self-destructing parent. Rehab is an option, yes. But a child never stays with the parent if her welfare is endangered. So too must the faithful flee from dissent - yes, you will always love your spiritual mother, your parish, but at what cost? Would you rather lose your soul for clinging to error and those professing it, than you would experience a "white martyrdom," voluntarily leaving your parish for the sake of Truth?
3. The Bitter - These are the people who let anger and pain get in the way of practicing Catholic virtues. The Bitter stay at a parish to be a thorn in the side of the administrator - not to rectify a problem, but to agitate and aggravate the problem's creator. This is not right, not at all. One must always have love for one's enemy - as we have love for those whom we discuss here. However, the moment hate enters into the picture, one must flee. This is the doing of Satan, who uses the free will of weak and erring humanity to enter into the Church. I have no doubt that Nancy DeRycke, Joan Sobala, Anne-Marie Brogan are good and loving people. However, through their actions, a demeanor enters the Church, a demeanor which is most definitively not from God. The Bitter are no different - they have a love for the Church, but they let this love turn into a jihad, if you will. It turns from love, to pain, to anger, to aggression.
4. The Opportunists - These are those individuals who enjoy putting on a show. I cannot begin to recount the stories of dozens of individuals, each one focusing around someone who would put up a strong front of orthodoxy, only to swoop in for titles and privilege once the faithful had left. A reader sent an email to us about something along these lines at St. Anne. A woman on the parish council was "grievously wounded" at what Sr. Joan had started doing at Mass. She had resolved to resign her chair on the parish council but, not for the sake of joining another church. No, she intended to convert to the Episcopalian parish on nearby Highland Avenue (which, you will note, is holding ecumenical Lenten services with OLOL). However, once several seats were vacated in several committees, she suddenly had a conversion, and swooped in to save the ailing parish. By the time all was done, she had more titles and duties after the debacle than she had before. This is heinous in its duplicity. This is not loving the Church at all - it is using it to flaunt one's abilities, one's talents, one's name and reputation. "Oh, look, Mr. _______ is on the music committee, the liturgy committee, the finance committee, and the RCIA team. He must be really into the Church." Oh, no, dear friends. The opposite is true. Those who stay at these failing parishes only for the sake of gaining something are more concerned with "self," not the Church.

I can state, with absolute certainty, that losing my parish of 30 years was the most painful thing I have ever experienced. It wiped me out emotionally, spiritually, physically, and mentally. For several months, my soul wept as it has never wept before. Not for family, not for pets, not for national disasters. No death was as bitter and all-consuming as was the death of my beloved parish. However, if it had not been for this bloody exile, this personal Via Dolorosa, I would never have discovered the unsurpassed beauty of the Traditional Latin Mass, the depth of the faith I had never truly experienced, the transcendence of a Novus Ordo Mass celebrated correctly, without political bias, done right. In losing my soul, I gained it back. Indeed, looking back on those years, I can clearly see the hand of God through it all. Without these things, I would be one of the God-loving apathetic lambs in the congregation. I wouldn't be motivated to assist those in similar situations, I wouldn't be motivated to write to Rome or the nuncio. I wouldn't be motivated to put myself to the spiritual grindstone, as it were. I would be absolutely complacent. A lover of God, yes, and a lover of the Church, but not a defender.

If you, dear reader, are an exile, you will know what I have relayed. You will have wept, you will have suffered. You will also have discovered yourself. If you are one of the faithful who have held on, continuing the good-fight, well aware of the implications, please consider making a break. Do not lose your soul defending a building. Gain radiance of soul by defending the Church.

If you are an opportunist, or a scatterer of sheep, may God have mercy on your soul. You will be in my prayers, and in the prayers of all who read this blog. But never presume that you, dear friend, are worthy to receive God's mercy. Love Him, not yourself. Love the Church, not your self-appointed self-importance. Find the glory of God in the Tradition of His Church, not in the folds of your lay preacher's alb.

Story in New Liturgical Movement

There is a story over at New Liturgical Movement about a parish in the Diocese of Sioux Falls, South Dakota that has fully instituted the "ad orientem" for the celebration of Holy Mass. This is wonderful news. What I found interesting is that the Bishop of the diocese - Bishop Paul J. Swain, is a native of Newark, NY. Newark is within the diocese of Rochester. Something good as come out of the DoR.
http://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/#6444803498160824804

http://www.sfcatholic.org/info/bishopswain.aspx

Drive the snakes out! 03-17

Socializing With Socialism