by Gregor Kollmorgen

Continue reading "The Error of the Sedevacantists" »

The televised Traditional Latin Mass that was held on April 24th in honor of the Pontificate of Pope Benedict, has generated this comment seen on Fr. Z's blog: What Does the Prayer Really Say.

Here are the comments of a Lutheran Pastor:

I watched the Mass on EWTN, as I have been watching Masses on EWTN for twenty years.  This Mass is going to be the nail in the coffin on my being a Protestant, and I am a Lutheran clergyman.  What was it about this Mass in particular that makes me question being a Protestant to the point of leaving my work, my congregation, my church, my income?  I heard the Deacon chant Peter’s words, "Tu es Christus," and then Christ respond, "Tu es Petrus."  Simon addresses Jesus by the title of His office, and then Jesus addresses Simon by the title of his office.  Could it be simpler?  And all through the rest of the Mass, I heard in chant and polyphony, "Tu es Petrus," etc., and I can’t get it out of my mind and heart and soul.  As a Protestant, I have no Petrus.  Father, please pray that God give me the strength and docility to come home to Petrus, to be built on the Petrus on which Christ has built His Church!

Thanks for letting me express the life-changing nature of this Mass (not to mention the strength the Sermon gave me to suffer through this transition, united to Christ).

As a follow up to the article about the Latin Mass at Holy Cross in Worcester, MA- this has been published:
At Vatican II, thousands of bishops agreed that the church needed a major overhaul.

The Worcester Telegram

WORCESTER —  Sean M. Connolly attended his first traditional Latin Mass when he studied abroad at the American Institute for Roman Culture in Rome.

After hearing much about the old rite that was at the spiritual heart of his grandparents’ generation, the College of the Holy Cross student visited the Santissima Trinita dei Pellegrini (the Most Holy Trinity of the Pilgrim Church), a 16th-century house of worship where the Mass is celebrated exclusively in Latin.

He said he immediately fell in love with the worship service — struck by its solemnity, its piousness, and its elaborate trappings.

“I felt like I was denied, for years, something that was very special,” said the 21-year-old Westchester, N.Y., resident. “It is such a beautiful liturgy.”

Mr. Connolly, who is studying theology and the classics at Holy Cross, said he was so impressed that he began to regularly attend the Latin Mass that is offered Sunday mornings at Immaculate Conception Church in Fitchburg.

And thinking that his fellow students might spiritually benefit from the experience, Mr. Connolly, with help from the chaplain’s office at Holy Cross, has worked to schedule a Mass on Mount St. James.

The service will be held at 5 p.m. today at St. Joseph’s Memorial Chapel, preceded at 4:30 p.m. with the recitation of the Rosary.

The Latin Mass will be the first to be celebrated at Holy Cross since 1995.

Raymond L. Delisle, a spokesman for the Diocese of Worcester, said he was not aware of any other Latin Masses being celebrated at the area’s Catholic colleges in years.

Pope Benedict XVI eased restrictions on the millennial-old rite in 2007.

The Latin Mass had been the standard Catholic liturgy until the sweeping reforms of the 1960s Vatican Council.

Traditionalists within the Catholic Church were pleased with Pope Benedict’s decision but the Latin Mass hasn’t been embraced by the general Catholic population.

Besides Immaculate Conception, Latin Masses within the diocese are only celebrated regularly at St. Paul Church in Warren.

“There is a small group that is very dedicated to the Latin Mass,” said Paul Covino, associate chaplain and director of liturgy at Holy Cross. “But it doesn’t seem to have caught on.”

Mr. Covino said the Mass in 1995 was celebrated at the request of curious students, who were unfamiliar with the rite. The Mass, at the time, had to be approved by the local bishop.

“We’re hoping the Mass will serve as an educational and spiritual tool,” Mr. Covino said.

He said there are no plans to regularly schedule the Latin Mass, also known as the Tridentine Mass, at Holy Cross because the Jesuit priests on College Hill are not trained in the rite.

Today’s Mass will be celebrated by the Rev. David Phillipson, who offers the service at Immaculate Conception in Fitchburg.

Mr. Connolly, a senior who hopes to attend seminary this fall and eventually become a priest for the Archdiocese of New York, said many who take part in the Masses in Fitchburg, including the choir and about 20 trained acolytes, will participate in today’s service.

From the Catholic Encyclopedia

The Wednesday after Quinquagesima Sunday, which is the first day of the Lenten fast.

The name dies cinerum (day of ashes) which it bears in the Roman Missal is found in the earliest existing copies of the Gregorian Sacramentary and probably dates from at least the eighth century. On this day all the faithful according to ancient custom are exhorted to approach the altar before the beginning of Mass, and there the priest, dipping his thumb into ashes previously blessed, marks the forehead — or in case of clerics upon the place of the tonsure — of each the sign of the cross, saying the words: "Remember man that thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return." The ashes used in this ceremony are made by burning the remains of the palms blessed on the Palm Sunday of the previous year. In the blessing of the ashes four prayers are used, all of them ancient. The ashes are sprinkled with holy water and fumigated with incense. The celebrant himself, be he bishop or cardinal, receives, either standing or seated, the ashes from some other priest, usually the highest in dignity of those present. In earlier ages a penitential procession often followed the rite of the distribution of the ashes, but this is not now prescribed.

There can be no doubt that the custom of distributing the ashes to all the faithful arose from a devotional imitation of the practice observed in the case of public penitents. But this devotional usage, the reception of a sacramental which is full of the symbolism of penance (cf. the cor contritum quasi cinis of the "Dies Irae") is of earlier date than was formerly supposed. It is mentioned as of general observance for both clerics and faithful in the Synod of Beneventum, 1091 (Mansi, XX, 739), but nearly a hundred years earlier than this the Anglo-Saxon homilist Ælfric assumes that it applies to all classes of men. "We read", he says,

in the books both in the Old Law and in the New that the men who repented of their sins bestrewed themselves with ashes and clothed their bodies with sackcloth. Now let us do this little at the beginning of our Lent that we strew ashes upon our heads to signify that we ought to repent of our sins during the Lenten fast.

And then he enforces this recommendation by the terrible example of a man who refused to go to church for the ashes on Ash Wednesday and who a few days after was accidentally killed in a boar hunt (Ælfric, Lives of Saints, ed. Skeat, I, 262-266). It is possible that the notion of penance which was suggested by the rite of Ash Wednesday was was reinforced by the figurative exclusion from the sacred mysteries symbolized by the hanging of the Lenten veil before the sanctuary. But on this and the practice of beginning the fast on Ash Wednesday see LENT.

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[If it were me I would rephrase the headline to read: "Modern Religious are in Crisis"


Catholic News Service ^ | 2/4/10 | John Thavis

Posted on Friday, February 05, 2010 8:53:56 AM by marshmallow

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A top Vatican official said religious orders today are in a "crisis" caused in part by the adoption of a secularist mentality and the abandonment of traditional practices.

Cardinal Franc Rode, prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, said the problems go deeper than the drastic drop in the numbers of religious men and women.

"The crisis experienced by certain religious communities, especially in Western Europe and North America, reflects the more profound crisis of European and American society. All this has dried up the sources that for centuries have nourished consecrated and missionary life in the church," Cardinal Rode said in a talk delivered Feb. 3 in Naples, Italy.

"The secularized culture has penetrated into the minds and hearts of some consecrated persons and some communities, where it is seen as an opening to modernity and a way of approaching the contemporary world," he said.

Cardinal Rode said the decline in the numbers of men and women religious became precipitous after the Second Vatican Council, which he described as a period "rich in experimentation but poor in robust and convincing mission."

Faced with an aging membership and fewer vocations, many religious orders have turned to "foreign vocations" in places like Africa, India and the Philippines, the cardinal said. He said the orders need to remember that quality of vocations is more important than quantity.

Continue reading "Vatican Official Says Religious Are in Modern 'Crisis'" »

The Paulus Institute announced today that on Saturday,
April 24, 2010, at 1 p.m., the fifth anniversary of inauguration
of Pope Benedict XVI will be commemorated in the Great Upper
Church of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the
Immaculate Conception, Washington DC, by a Pontifical
Solemn High Mass in the “Extraordinary form”—commonly
known as the “Traditional Latin Mass” or “Tridentine Mass”
—celebrated by the Vatican prelate  Darío Cardinal Castrillón
Hoyos of Colombia.

This will be the first such Mass said at the Shrine's High Altar
in nearly 45 years. All Catholics are invited, many of whom may
never have another opportunity to attend such a Mass.
Cardinal Castrillon is the President Emeritus of the Vatican's
Pontificial Commission Ecclesia Dei.

   

The Paulus Institute in Washington DC is sponsoring the Mass.

“We are honored that His Eminence Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos

will be celebrating this Mass at our invitation, especially on the
anniversary of Pope Benedict’s inauguration and at the High Altar
of the National Shrine,” said Institute President Paul King. “It is a
privilege to recognize the Pope on this auspicious occasion and
assist his call to give due honor to the 1500-year old Mass for its
‘venerable and ancient usage.’”

“We are inviting all Catholics to this Mass for the unity
of the entire Catholic community, including those unfamiliar
with it and particularly young adults and families.”
   
For additional information on the Pontifical Mass and The Paulus
Institute’s activities, go to: www.ThePaulusInstitute.org.

January 19, 2010

 

Youngstown, OH - After 34 years in the abortion business, the Mahoning Women's Center in Youngstown, Ohio, permanently closed its doors on January 12, 2010. The owner has retired and the building will be sold. The closure leaves the community of Youngstown abortion-free.

 

"This is such great news for the people of Ohio and all Americans. It means that lives will be saved," said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman. "We know from experience that when abortion clinics close, many women who would otherwise have opted for abortion will instead happily keep their babies or release them for adoption."

 

The closure follows a well-documented national trend. In 1991, there were nearly 2,200 abortion clinics, but today there are 712. Since 1991 over two-thirds of all abortion clinics have permanently closed. That trend reflects the shifting attitude of Americans toward the pro-life position.

 

Operation Rescue documented this trend in Project Daniel 5:25, which lists the remaining abortion clinics and encourages pro-life supporters to maintain a presence outside each one.

 

"This week, we mark the 37th memorial of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that decriminalized abortion and we mourn for the 50 million babies that were the cruel victims of that decision. Yet, at the same time, we rejoice that abortion clinics are closing at an unprecedented rate and that an increasing number of Americans are rejecting abortion in favor of embracing and cherishing life. The foundations of Roe have crumbled, and the abortion industry is not far behind," said Newman.

 

To further speed the closure of abortion clinics, Operation Rescue is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of abortionists who are breaking the law