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We had two Masses here for the Holy Day - one in the morning in the Ordinary Form and one in the evening in the Extraordinary Form. The evening EF Mass was the better attended!
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“Remain in my love…I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your
joy may be complete.” (Jn 15)
The Priest has to relive these words of the Gospel of John. The joy of the priest,
is to belong to Christ. The joy of identification to the priesthood of Christ, “high priest of the happiness which is to come”, to quote the words of Revelation.
This joy to follow the Christ all the way to the end, into the night, the Acts of the
Apostles testifies: “So they left the presence of the Sanhedrin, rejoicing that they had been found worthy to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name.” (Acts 5:41) To the external resistance, results of indifference, of incomprehension, of persecutions, is added the suffering of love which, in us, is imperfect. The priest, more than all others, is confronted with his flesh, with the tragedy of this world which draws him away from God. But the joy of belonging to Christ guides us, not to stop at suffering, but by giving our consent, through suffering, to love all the way to the end. The challenge is often the shadow of the blessing.
“Later on, we will see that the moments of weakness were maybe the biggest moments of our lives” confided Cardinal Journet. We know that all ascending is nourished through pain which is overcome.
Yes, the priest experiences the joy of paternity at the same time as he is giving birth
within the difficulties, but also he knows the joy of fraternity. In the Acts of the
Apostles, the “see how they love one another” is expressed in this testimony, “The
disciples where filled with joy and the holy Spirit” (Acts 13:52). The joy of the agape, of fraternal life. The priest lives his ministry inserted into a presbyterium which surrounds the bishop and collaborates with his apostolic charge. The priest is sent to a community which did not choose him and which he did not choose. St Thomas Aquinas said that “joy is not a virtue which is separated from charity. It is the result or the effect of charity”. Interior joy expands with fraternal communion. In this world so often given to solitude and to being anonymous, to disenchantment and to the frenetic search of superficial happiness and to mirages, the priest is the testimony of true joy. The Apostle Paul himself called ministers of the Gospel “the servants of joy, charged to collaborate with our joy” (Cor 1:24). Community life, lived between priests, lived with the lay faithful, must teach us to never give up joy, but to otherwise nourish joy between us, and in giving up ourselves to deploy joy in the service of others. Our joy is to give happiness to others. “Don’t let anyone come to you and leave without being more joyful”, Mother Theresa asked of her sisters. Our joy, the joy of the communion of the saints, is, as in every Eucharistic procession on the day of Corpus Christi, is to walk together with the Lord, towards the Lord. The joy of serving our brothers and sisters unfolds the soul. God will have the corresponding space in our hearts which we allow for joy and service.
The joy of the priest is the daughter of hope. Let us remember the parable of the servant. “Blessed are the servants who, at his arrival, the Master will find at his service” (Mt. 25:45). This parable brings us into the grace of fidelity. At each mass, the sacramental coming of Christ pulls our joy into the joy of God, towards the glorious manifestation of Christ at the end of time. The beatitude of the priest is to be a witness of a promise which is being accomplished, for the world, at each Mass, the prelude to a definitive victory which is entrusted to our hope. Our salvation is not earned. The priest reminds the faithful that our salvation is given.
The mission of the priest, faced with skepticism, is to awaken us to worship, in union with the heavenly choirs and with all those who contemplate the glory of God, all those who call us into giving thanks; “Rejoice always” (1 Thes. 5:16) “Rejoice in the Lord always!” (Phil. 4:4). The scriptures address these constant reminders to all Christians, but in particular to the priest. The priest is ordained “for the joy” of salvation, and it is to this joy that he brings order to the world, by revealing the author of this joy. His ministry is to place the world back in its rightful place, that is, within the orbit of God, to place God in the center of our lives so that all can acquire its form from him.
Dear brothers and sisters,
These 15 priests will be sent out to the service of your sanctification, in the service of the theological and missionary growth of your communities.
“Esteem” them (1 Thes. 5:13) for their commitment, for their ministry. It is the Lord who sends them to you.
Ask them to help you to grow in faith, and you will help them to root their trust in God.
Ask your priests for whatever you expect from Christ. Ask them to give you Christ, it is the best service which you can give to them.
Support their ministry through your faithful prayer, by your material and pastoral help, all the while accepting that “your” priests belong not only to you. They are also priests to the sheep who have gone astray.
Help them to live their fidelity to Christ and to the Church, their path to holiness, all the way to the end.
Help them to live their vows which they will take before you today: the choice of celibacy, a simplicity of evangelical life, obedience to the Church.
I offer to you their humanity. Do you remember what a priest is? I don’t ask you to place them on a pedestal, but to place upon them a gaze of faith and hope, for although priests, they undergo the same battles as you. I entrust them to you, for they haven’t founded a family, because you are their family.
And may the joy of this ordination span across their entire existence, may it become the joy of the Church. A joy that no one can take away from them.
You can read the whole of the homily here.
“While Holy Thursday commemorates the mystery of Christ who gives us the bread and wine, today, on the feast of Corpus Christi, the same mystery is proposed to the People of God to worship Him and think about Him.”In his homily, the Holy Father explained that the Holy Eucharist comes from a profound act of love of God, saying communion creates bonds among recipients.
“Eucharistic Communion unites one with the person their side, you may not get along, but also unites us to those who are far away, in anyplace in the world. Hence, from the Eucharist, comes the deep sense of social work of the Church.”After the Mass, the Holy Father accompanied the Eucharist in a procession that was almost a mile long through the streets of Rome.
Bishop Athanasius Schneider of Kazakhstan, Bishop Reali, Bishop Slattery of Tulsa, Fr Mark Kirby, Bishop Rey and Fr Racine.
This new evangelization needs to be accompanied with prayer - particularly prayer in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament, contemplation of the Lord's sacrifice of His life. Otherwise the new evangelization would be only a new gimmick, a promotion, a publicity drive. Adoration of the Blessed sacrament is not a spiritual gadget but a means of personal transformation.
The Eucharist makes Satan run. [When did I last hear a bishop speak about Satan?]
The Bishop recognised that there are sterile spiritualities in the Church but Eucharistic Adoration heals the Church of her sterile spirituality.
The weakening of our evangelising spirit, the fear of presenting the fullness of the Gospel challenge to the world, can only result in a crisis in our own identity. [Indeed it has.] Evangelization is an inherent NEED in the Church. However, it must be presented in the context of our objective Faith. The Council of Trent reminded us that Christ is not present because we believe but rather, we believe because Christ is present. [Amen!] Where we compromise with the world, we have a disfigured Christianity. We have made the mistake of letting the Church become a [like closing our seminaries and churches instead of turning to prayer and penance and trusting that the Lord will provide?] consumer supplier where all is judged by efficiency, feasibility and cost - what the Bishop called actionism. Rather than this business model where an accountable result is required we must return to a reliance on prayer.
In the presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament we can leave aside the atrophied shimmer of the world and become what we adore - He who is good, beautiful and pure. [Amen and Alleluia!]
“ considers any refusal of Holy Communion to a member of the faithful on the basis of his or her kneeling posture to be a grave violation of one of the most basic rights of the Christian faithful, namely that of being assisted by their Pastors by means of the Sacraments (Codex Iuris Canonici, canon 213). In view of the law that "sacred ministers may not deny the sacraments to those who opportunely ask for them, are properly disposed and are not prohibited by law from receiving them”(canon 843, 1), there should be no such refusal to any Catholic who presents himself for Holy Communion at Mass, except in cases presenting a danger of grave scandal to other believers arising out of the person's unrepented public sin or obstinate heresy or schism, publicly professed or declared. Even where the Congregation has approved of legislation denoting standing as the posture for Holy Communion, in accordance with the adaptations permitted to the Conferences of Bishops by the Institutio Generalis Missalis Romani n. 160, paragraph 2, it has done so with the stipulation that communicants who choose to kneel are not to be denied Holy Communion on these grounds."
“O Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I adore Thee profoundly. I offer Thee the most Precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifference by which He is offended. By the infinite merits of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg the conversion of poor sinners.”
" Our Lord himself prayed on his knees in the Garden of Olives, and when St Paul said goodbye to the Christians of Miletus he prayed with them kneeling (Acts xx, 3 6). By kneeling a man emphasises his littleness and submission before his superior.” [emphasis added]
[Public Worship, JA. Jungmann, S.J. 1957. Challoner Publications London]
Responses to Questions on Kneeling for Communion
The following responses to questions were published in the November-December 2002 edition of Notitiae, the official publication of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. These responses represent the view of the Holy See on the questions of kneeling to receive Holy Communion and the right of Catholics to address concerns to the Holy See. More can be read on the Adoremus site.
Congregation de Cultu Divino et Disciplina Sacramentorum
Prot. n. 1322/02/L
Rome, 1 July 2002
Your Excellency,
This Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments has recently received reports of members of the faithful in your Diocese being refused Holy Communion unless while standing to receive, as opposed to kneeling. The reports state that such a policy has been announced to parishioners. There were possible indications that such a phenomenon might be somewhat more widespread in the Diocese, but the Congregation is unable to verify whether such is the case. This Dicastery is confident that Your Excellency will be in a position to make a more reliable determination of the matter, and these complaints in any event provide an occasion for the Congregation to communicate the manner in which it habitually addresses this matter, with a request that you make this position known to any priests who may be in need of being thus informed.
The Congregation in fact is concerned at the number of similar complaints that it has received in recent months from various places, and considers any refusal of Holy Communion to a member of the faithful on the basis of his or her kneeling posture to be a grave violation of one of the most basic rights of the Christian faithful, namely that of being assisted by their Pastors by means of the Sacraments (Codex Iuris Canonici, canon 213). In view of the law that "sacred ministers may not deny the sacraments to those who opportunely ask for them, are properly disposed and are not prohibited by law from receiving them" (canon 843 ¶ 1), there should be no such refusal to any Catholic who presents himself for Holy Communion at Mass, except in cases presenting a danger of grave scandal to other believers arising out of the person's unrepented public sin or obstinate heresy or schism, publicly professed or declared. Even where the Congregation has approved of legislation denoting standing as the posture for Holy Communion, in accordance with the adaptations permitted to the Conferences of Bishops by the Institutio Generalis Missalis Romani n. 160, paragraph 2, it has done so with the stipulation that communicants who choose to kneel are not to be denied Holy Communion on these grounds.
In fact, as His Eminence, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger has recently emphasized, the practice of kneeling for Holy Communion has in its favor a centuries-old tradition, and it is a particularly expressive sign of adoration, completely appropriate in light of the true, real and substantial presence of Our Lord Jesus Christ under the consecrated species.
Given the importance of this matter, the Congregation would request that Your Excellency inquire specifically whether this priest in fact has a regular practice of refusing Holy Communion to any member of the faithful in the circumstances described above and -- if the complaint is verified -- that you also firmly instruct him and any other priests who may have had such a practice to refrain from acting thus in the future. Priests should understand that the Congregation will regard future complaints of this nature with great seriousness, and if they are verified, it intends to seek disciplinary action consonant with the gravity of the pastoral abuse.
Thanking Your Excellency for your attention to this matter and relying on your kind collaboration in its regard,
Sincerely yours in Christ,
Jorge A. Cardinal Medina Estévez
Prefect+Francesco Pio Tamburrino
Archbishop Secretary
What the Pope, God bless him, has actually done is to re-appropriate a liturgy whose origins were in the first place entirely Catholic. As the Anglo-Catholic liturgist and divine Percy Dearmer (a friend of G K Chesterton) pointed out, the first Anglican Prayer Book “was not created in a vacuum, but derives from several sources. First and foremost was the Sarum Rite, or the Latin liturgy developed in Salisbury in the 13th century, and widely used in England. Two other influences were a reformed Roman Breviary of the Spanish Cardinal Quiñones, and a book on doctrine and liturgy by Hermann von Wied, Archbishop of Cologne.”
The Eucharistic liturgy which emerged was, of course, entirely defective from a Catholic point of view, simply invalid, and deliberately so: it was made brutally clear that this was not the sacrifice of the Mass. But Cardinal Quiñones’s attempt at streamlining the Breviary was adopted virtually in its totality.
"There are groups, of no small influence, who are trying to talk us out of kneeling. "It doesn't suit our culture", they say (which culture?) "It's not right for a grown man to do this -- he should face God on his feet". Or again: "It's not appropriate for redeemed man -- he has been set free by Christ and doesn't need to kneel any more".
"It may well be that kneeling is alien to modern culture -- insofar as it is a culture, for this culture has turned away from the faith and no longer knows the one before whom kneeling is the right, indeed the intrinsically necessary gesture. The man who learns to believe learns also to kneel, and a faith or a liturgy no longer familiar with kneeling would be sick at the core. Where it has been lost, kneeling must be rediscovered, so that, in our prayer, we remain in fellowship with the apostles and martyrs, in fellowship with the whole cosmos, indeed in union with Jesus Christ Himself."Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger - 'The Spirit of the Liturgy'
"In the Dioceses of England and Wales Holy Communion is to be received standing, though individual members of the faithful may choose to receive Communion while kneeling. However, when they communicate standing, it is recommended that the faithful bow in reverence before receiving the sacrament."Apparently the Congregation has given its recognitio to this.
One could perhaps even see a preference for using this manner of distribution [kneeling and on the tongue] which, without taking away anything from the other [manner], better highlights the truth of the Real Presence in the Eucharist, helps the devotion of the faithful, and introduces [them] more easily to the sense of the mystery. These are aspects which, in our time, pastorally speaking, it is urgent to stress and recover.As this is a norm for England and Wales, it is obviously not so for the rest of the Church, so we must be different. But, hey, who really wants to better highlight the truth of the Real Presence? Not us here in England and Wales, it seems. Are we in line with the mind of the Church as expressed by the successor of St Peter? It seems not.